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Page last updated at 10:23 GMT, Friday, 3 July 2009 11:23 UK

Air crash victim's body recovered

Arthur Coakley
Mr Coakley was a director of an Aberdeen-based oil industry company

Investigators have recovered the body of a North Yorkshire businessman who died in the Air France jet crash.

Arthur Coakley, 61, from Sandsend, near Whitby, was on the flight from Brazil to France when it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June.

His wife Patricia has been told by police that his body is one of those to have been recovered from the sea.

A total of 228 people were on board the plane. There were no survivors and 51 bodies have so far been recovered.

Speaking at the time of the crash, Mrs Coakley said the news had devastated their sons, Dominic, 31, and Patrick, 29, and daughter Mise, 25.

Patricia Coakley
Patricia Coakley says her family has been left distraught

Mr Coakley was one of five British people on board flight 447.

Most of the other passengers were Brazilians and French nationals.

Bodies and debris from the plane have been found some 1,000km (600 miles) north-east of the Fernando de Noronha islands.

French investigators trying to find out why the plane crashed have said they believe it broke up on contact with water, not in the air.

They have also found that the plane's speed sensors had been "a factor but not the cause" of the crash.

Teams looking for the plane's flight data recorders are continuing their operations.



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