French authorities and Air New Zealand management now say there is no realistic chance of finding anyone alive from the crash of an Airbus plane off the coast of France.
"There is now no prospect of any recovery effort of our colleagues being recovered and that the investigation has begun to recover their bodies," confirms Air New Zealand spokesman Ed Sims.
Air New Zealand is flying its flags at half mast on Saturday to mourn the loss of four of their own.
Spokesman Ed Sims says it's a difficult time, both for their families and for staff.
He says it is devastating for all 11,000 Air New Zealander employees worldwide, and the airline is immeasurably poorer for the loss.
French authorities say they have located the black boxes from the crashed airbus.
However, deteriorating weather conditions are making it difficult for authorities to retrieve the black box data recorders from the scene of the Airbus A320 crash just yet.
French search and rescue authorities have locator signals from the two black box flight recorders but say they don't expect to recover the recorders until Sunday.
Two bodies were recovered just hours after the crash but are still to be identified.
The remaining five people are still missing after the aircraft, which was owned by Air New Zealand but had been operated by a German company, crashed off the coast of France on Friday.
Sims says search teams are dealing with high winds, significant swells and cool temperatures.
He says the weather conditions have significantly hampered search and rescue efforts.
"There are now high winds, significant swells and temperatures remain cool in the search area. Realistically hopes of finding any survivors are fading. Our thoughts continue to be with the families of the missing men."
Sims says the airline continues to receive many messages of
condolence and support from the New Zealand public and industry
representatives throughout the world.
ONE News Europe correspondent Mark Crysell says police divers are
looking for more wreckage and the remaining five bodies. He says
search conditions are tough with strong north-westerly winds, a
strong current and waves which are rare in the Mediterranean.
Searchers believe the bodies may have drifted as far south as Spain.
"We just have found the two bodies and I suppose considering the conditions of the seas we could find people all over the coast and maybe even in Spain," says Pierre Renault, regional commanding officer.
Crysell says wreckage has been found further down the coast than expected and is covering a wide area. He says there is still no explanation for the crash.
Navy divers returned to the scene at dawn on Friday to join the hunt for the bodies and the plane's black box. The wreck is lying on a sandy bank at a depth of 35 metres.
A rescue plane and a helicopter circled the crash area while navy and coastguard boats scoured the sea.
Air New Zealand has established a team at Perpignan who were flown down from London on Friday night. Chief executive Rob Fyfe and some of the victims' families are on the way to join them.
"Seven people from overseas for a very simple mission died in
France. We are focussed to discover the five corpses - it's very
important for the families," says Renault.
Air New Zealand staff are rallying to support the families of the
five New Zealanders involved.
Spokesman Ed Sims says it has been an emotional time for everyone working for the company.
Sims is keeping in close contact with the families, and says the airline will continue to offer to fly all the families involved to France if it's what they want to do.
He says the airline will spare no expense or effort to support
the investigation.
The Civil Aviation Authority has also lost one of its staff in the
crash. Airworthiness Inspector Jeremy Cook was on board, along with
the four Air New Zealand crew.
CAA spokesman Bill Sommer says certification engineers carry out flights like the one the aircraft was on fairly regularly. He says flying on an A320 is statistically safer than being a pedestrian on the footpath in New Zealand.
Sommer says the CAA is not a big organisation and Cook's death has come as a shock to them all.
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