Air France Plane Crash Victim's Funeral 

2009-06-26 04:57

 

Relatives carry the coffin of Luiz Claudio Monlevad.

He died on board flight AF447 when it crashed into the Atlantic en route from Rio to Paris on June 1st.

This is the first funeral of a victim of the plane crash, which killed 228 people.

Monlevad's brother-in-law said the family had been optimistic.

[Mario Sergio Andrade, Victim's Brother-In-Law]:
"We were very hopeful that at some point we would find him alive."

The Air France Airbus 330 crashed after hitting stormy weather.

The exact cause of the disaster is still unknown.

Military search teams have recovered 50 bodies and hundreds of pieces of wreckage.

But so far there is no sign of the crucial black box which may give investigators vital clues as to what happened.

Investigators say data transmitted before the crash suggest the plane's speed readings were unreliable.

But it's too early to say whether this contributed to the accident.

Air France say they'll compensate the families for those presumed killed on flight AF447.

However, no amount of money can replace the loss of a loved one.