MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Second body recovered from Air France mid Atlantic wreckage

The ‘Remora’ robot from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is doing the deep sea search

French police said a second body has been removed from the underwater wreckage of the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean nearly two years ago. A remote-controlled submarine raised a body that was still strapped into an airline seat some 3,900 metres to the water's surface Friday.

The remains of another underwater victim had been retrieved a day earlier. Police said the recovery team removed the entire seat from the water with the “greatest dignity under difficult conditions”.

Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris went down on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people aboard. The cause of the crash is not yet known. Fifty other bodies were found in the water shortly after crash.

Meanwhile last week a Brazilian court again rejected an appeal by Air France and raised the damage award the French airline company must pay to the family of a Brazilian victim of Flight 447.

The Rio do Janeiro State unanimously rejected Air France's appeal and upped the compensation it must pay to 1.4 million Real (868,000 US dollars), up from the previous sum of 1.2 million Real (USD 744,000).

“The 11th Rio Tribunal on Wednesday unanimously rejected an appeal by Air France, and raised the amount of the damage award which had first been set in December,” said a court spokesperson.

The airline is being sued by the family of Luciana Clarkson Seba, a 31-year-old Brazilian who died along with her husband and stepparents in the crash.

The airline, through its insurers, had made compensation payments to the relatives of the passengers and crew, but continues to defend itself from litigation in Brazil.

Both Airbus and Air France are being probed for manslaughter by a French investigating magistrate. The crash has been partly blamed on malfunctioning speed sensors used by Airbus, with Air France accused of not responding quickly enough to reports that they might be faulty. The airline has denied the allegations.