Latest on Air France 447 black box, victim identification, search operation and investigation

Following the crash the Brazilian military launched one of the largest and complex maritime search and rescue operation in its history.

Despite the massive search operation organised for the recovery of the human remains and the black box, only 51 bodies have been recovered and the black box is still unaccounted for. The search for the remaining bodies has been called off by the Brazilian military.

The major follow up operations underway in the aftermath of the crash were the search for bodies, search for black box, identification of the bodies and official investigation into the accident.

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Search for human remains

The search and recovery of passenger bodies led to 51 bodies being recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. The last of the bodies was retrieved on 17 June and the search for the human remains was eventually called off on 26 June after nine days of fruitless search.

Earlier, fears were raised whether all of the passenger's bodies can be recovered from a disaster of such magnitude and it is likely that the remaining 177 human remains may never be recovered.

Speaking to the press in the city of Recife, Brazilian air force Col. Henry Munhoz called this the most complex and largest search and rescue mission over sea the Brazilian military has ever embarked on and said, "The technical reason for calling off the search was the impossibility of locating more bodies, which was the main objective of the operation."

"Despite our desire to recover the 228 people, we are fully confident that the navy and air force did the best they could," Munhoz said in the press conference.