Tanzanian police recovered a piece of aircraft wreckage from the Yemeni Airbus that plunged into the sea off the Indian Ocean island of Comoros last week, it was reported today.
Mafia District Commissioner Manzie Mangochie said that of about 13 bodies spotted earlier this week, authorities had now recovered eight.
A small metal tag with the words "Deutsche Airbus GmBH" was riveted onto the white debris found off the remote Mafia Island, which lies off the east African country of Tanzania, about 500 km (300 miles) from the crash site.
Two men hauled the large, flat piece of plane debris through dense scrub. Others carried a body wrapped in plastic sheeting found near the debris and three more people in white bodybags were lying in the back of a police Land Rover.
Tanzania said yesterday bodies that appeared to be from the doomed Yemeni Airbus 310-300 that crashed into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros archipelago last week had been seen floating off Mafia Island, along with plane debris.
Only one survivor out of 153 people on board - a Franco-Comoran girl - was found. Bahia Bakari, who can barely swim, clung on to floating debris for more than 12 hours before search teams spotted her struggling in rough seas.
The hunt for other survivors was abandoned this week.
Rescue teams in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros have detected a signal from the plane's flight recorders but say it could take a while to reach the wreck as it is in deep water.
Attempts to retrieve the corpses from the ocean around Mafia Island were being hampered by rough seas.
Reuters