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Source: Reuters -
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A service is being held in Christchurch for CAA inspector Jeremy Cook, who died in the Air New Zealand Airbus crash off the coast of France.
Family and friends will farewell the 58-year-old at the Air Force Museum in Wigram.
Cook was one of five New Zealanders who died when the plane plunged into the sea on November 28.
All but one of the seven on board the Airbus A320 have now been found after divers recovered two more bodies. The other victims were the two German pilots.
Next week investigators will use a robot to sift through the wreckage 40 metres below the surface near Perpignan.
French authorities are expected to formally identify the bodies next month.
Wreckage from the aircraft is likely to lie on the seabed for several more weeks before an attempt is made to recover it. It is in a difficult location on the seabed with a strong current and is spread over two kilometres.
The A320 was in its final assessment before it was handed back to Air New Zealand after it had been leased by the German airline XL Airways.
New Zealand authorities sent the Transport Air Investigation Commission's (TAIC) deputy chief investigator Ken Matthews to France as part of the official inquiry.
TAIC chief investigator Tim Burfoot says the inquiry could take months or years.
