France finds bodies of 2009 Air France plane crash in Brazil

The government said the bodies, together with wreckage from the plane, will be brought to the surface in the next few weeks.

In June 2009, Air France flight 447 had crashed into the ocean on its way to Rio de Janeiro from Paris. All 228 passengers and crew on board had died, after the flight hit stormy weather and vanished.

Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said bodies were found and they will be recovered and identified. Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said the black box flight records had not yet been located. Mariani added the victims’ families would be informed of the findings at a meeting at the end of the week and no further details would be made public before then.

The ministers said they could not yet quantify the number of bodies captured on photographs.

The discovery was made in the fourth search since the crash, and is being carried out using a vessel equipped with unmanned submarines. An initial underwater search had also found parts of wreckage and bodies.