First Flight 447 Victim Buried in Rio: Daily

By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The body of Nelson Marinho Filho, who died when Air France flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, has been buried in Rio – the first formal burial since a major salvage attempt was completed in June this year.

Nelson Filho’s body is one of 104 recovered from the water in the operation, and is one of eighteen Brazilians to have been identified so far, whose remains began arriving in Brazil at the weekend.

They are all expected to be buried by the end of the next week.

At the funeral his father, Nelson Marinho, who is also president of the Flight AF 447 Victims’ Families Association, said that although burying his son brought “some closure”, the struggle continues.

He says he refuses to believe that the accident was due to human error when a further six A330s have fallen from the skies since AF 447, and this year asked for a parallel investigation conducted by Brazil into the tragedy.

Investigations into the incident are still ongoing, but it is thought the aircraft stalled after climbing too high.

Air France flight 447 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009, when it fell into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.

Read more (in Portuguese).

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