Brazilian relatives of Air France crash victims request criminal investigation

August 14th, 2009 Brazil identifies last body in Air France crashSAO PAULO — Brazilian authorities say they have used DNA to identify the last body found from the Air France jet crash in the mid-Atlantic that killed 228 people. Officials say the 50th body recovered was that of a non-Brazilian man, but they have not revealed his nationality or his identity.

July 9th, 2009 Remains of Flight 447 en route to France for probePARIS — More than 600 pieces of Air France Flight 447 are being sent from Brazil to France by ship to be studied further for clues into the June 1 crash, Airbus said Thursday. The disaster overshadowed a meeting of Air France-KLM shareholders on Thursday, with pilots saying the company didn't do enough to prevent the plane from crashing into the Atlantic Ocean.

July 4th, 2009 Correction: France-Crash Investigation storyLE BOURGET, France — In a July 2 story about the probe into the crash of Air France flight 447, The Associated Press erroneously quoted Charles-Henri Tardivat, a lawyer for the victims' families, as saying the phase of grief had passed. Tardivat said families "started concentrating on their families, their grief, and how to be able to put a close on at least that part of their life" once they realized how little was available from the investigation.

July 1st, 2009 21 more victims of Air France crash identifiedRIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian officials say they've identified the remains of 21 more people who were aboard an Air France jet when it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean last month. Authorities say 17 newly identified victims were foreign and four were Brazilian.

June 25th, 2009 PARIS - Authorities have identified the body of the chief pilot of the Air France aircraft that plunged into the Atlantic June 1 with 228 people aboard, the airline said on its web site Thursday. "Among the victims found in the sea search, two members of the Air France crew have been identified: the flight captain and a steward," Air France said.

June 22nd, 2009 SAO PAOLO - Brazilian authorities have identified 11 victims, three weeks after an Air France jet carrying 228 people crashed on its way to France, a news report said. The forensics department in the port town Recife identified 10 Brazilians, among them five women, and one foreigner, whose bodies were among the 50 recovered after the Airbus A330 crashed June 1 off Brazil's coast.

June 19th, 2009 Air France crash families to get 1st compensationPARIS — Air France focused on aiding families of victims from the crash of Flight 447, offering a first advance on compensation on Friday while investigators worked quietly to solve the mystery of what brought the jet down. The top European air safety agency said, meanwhile, there was not yet enough evidence to issue a mandatory recall of an external air speed monitor suspected of contributing to the disaster.

June 17th, 2009 RIO DE JANEIRO - Seven more bodies were recovered Tuesday from the sea from the Air France plane crash earlier this month, bringing the total of bodies recovered up to 50, a Navy spokesman said. Six bodies were recovered by a French ship off Brazil's northeastern coast and one by the Brazilian Navy.

June 8th, 2009 SO PAULO - Search teams Sunday recovered the bodies of 17 people from the Air France plane that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people on board June 1, a Brazilian Air Force spokesman said. While Brazilian teams retrieved nine bodies, French teams recovered eight, Brazilian Air Force spokesman Henry Munhoz said in the northeastern city of Recife.

June 7th, 2009 PARIS - The French Navy has found another body from the Air France airliner that plunged into the Atlantic with 228 people aboard, a spokesman said here Sunday. The body was spotted by a helicopter and recovered from waters about 1,200 km northeast of the Brazilian coastline by the frigate Ventose.

June 7th, 2009 SAN PAULO - The bodies of two men from the Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil have been found by search teams. "We confirm the recovery from the water of debris and bodies from the Air France plane," Sky News quoted Brazilian air force spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral, as saying.

June 6th, 2009 SAO PAULO/PARIS - The Brazilian Air Force has found the first bodies and wreckage from the Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic Monday, a spokesman said Saturday in Recife. The find was made about 8 a.m.

June 3rd, 2009 PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy came to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Wednesday for a multi-denominational service commemorating the 228 victims of Monday's crash of an Air France jetliner. Sarkozy was accompanied to the service by his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

June 3rd, 2009 PARIS - An investigation into the cause of the Air France disaster was formally opened in France Wednesday as the country began a period of national mourning with a service for the dead in the Notre Dame Cathedral. President Nicolas Sarkozy and other government members will attend the memorial service in Paris later Wednesday at the cathedral.

June 3rd, 2009 Organization of the Air France crash probeThe French accident investigation agency, known by its French acronym BEA, is in charge of the inquiry into what happened to Air France Flight 447, which crashed with 228 aboard en route from Rio to Paris. The man in charge of the investigation, Alain Bouillard, led the probe into the 2000 crash of the Concorde supersonic jet.