<name>Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet</name>, France's Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Sea, confirmed to reporters: "Bodies were found. They will be recovered and identified."

"We weren’t prepared for that. We are now confronted with another trauma," <name>Robert Soulas</name>, vice president of Entraide et Solidarité AF447, a support group for families of victims of the crash, said. <name>Soulas</name> lost his daughter and son-in-law, who were on board the flight when it crashed. "For me, personally I would like to leave the bodies of my children, my two children, on the seabed."

The remains of the plane, which were concentrated in a 600 metres by 200 metres (1,968 feet by 656 feet) area, appear to be relatively intact which leads investigators to believe that the plane hit the water intact and did not explode mid-air. Around 50 bodies of the 228 passengers and crew on board and parts of the plane were found shortly after the crash in 2009.

According to <name>Jean-Paul Troadec</name>, the head of France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), the accident investigation body for aircraft overseeing the operation and investigation, the wreckage and bodies will be bought to surface and then sent to France for investigation. The salvage operation, which will cost around 5 million euros ($7.1 million) according to estimates, will be financed by the French government. Three salvage companies who are bidding to recover the wreck have until afternoon on Thursday to submit proposals. The operation should take between three weeks to a month.

On raising the remains of the plane <name>Troadec</name> said: "We want to know what happened in this accident, most particularly so it never happens again." Some family members agreed saying such as <name>Michael Gaignard</name>, whose sister was on board the plane said, "We want to know what happened in that plane." An attorney for several families said some had yet to come to terms with loss of loved ones, saying "There's been no burial, no goodbye ... just lots and lots of suffering."

<name>Soulas</name> of Entraide et Solidarité AF447 disagreed. "There's a very traumatic side to this and it causes problems of identification. We don't know what state they are in." He added, "And it risks causing a dispute between families who want to leave the bodies at the bottom of the Atlantic and those who want them brought to the surface."

<name>Alain Bouillard</name>, who is in charge of BEA's recovery effort said, "It's still a jigsaw puzzle. We do not know where the recorders might be."

There are concerns that the two-year length the recorders have been submerged in seawater along with enormous pressure located at the depth of the wreck, that the data on the recorders might be unreadable. <name>Bouillard</name> said it is possible the recorders were damaged, but had "great confidence" in their robustness.

Without the recovery of the recorders, investigators may be unable to determine the cause of the crash. The leading theory at the moment is that the crew received incorrect air speed readings from the aircraft's pitot tubes, devices which measure how fast the aircraft is travelling. Experts say the tubes may have become iced over, causing the crash.

The plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) sent out 24 messages over a four-minute long period stating numerous problems and warnings, including incorrect air speed warnings occurring aboard the aircraft, just prior to it going down.