A fourth body has been recovered from the scene of the Air New Zealand Airbus crash near Perpignan in France.
Divers found the body near the wreckage of the plane just before nightfall in France on Friday (Saturday NZ time), Radio New Zealand reported.
The Airbus A320 crashed
into the Mediterranean Sea on November 28, killing seven people. Two German pilots, four Air New Zealand personnel and a Civil Aviation Authority engineer were aboard.
Radio New Zealand reported the body was in very bad condition and had been taken to a nearby hospital to be identified.
DNA tests have been held on the first three bodies recovered from the crash and French authorities are expected to announce their identities next week.
Late last week family members of the five New Zealanders killed remembered their loved ones on a French beach as the airline's staff worldwide observed a minute's silence.
More than 20 family and friends and airline and government support teams stood on Canet Beach in southwestern France, only a few hundred metres from where the aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean.
The five New Zealanders who died were senior A320 pilot Captain Brian Horrell, 52, engineers Murray White, 37, Michael Gyles, 49, Noel Marsh, 35, and Civil Aviation Authority inspector Jeremy Cook, 58.
The aircraft had been leased to a German carrier, XL Airways and was being tested before returning to Air New Zealand.
Two black box flight recorders had been recovered but were badly damage and had not yet revealed information to explain the crash.
"At this stage of the inquiry, nothing explains why the aircraft left its trajectory and crashed into the sea," said French officials in a statement.
- NZPA
