KEY POINTS:
The bodies of the New Zealanders killed when an Air New Zealand passenger jet plunged into the sea off the French coast last year are coming home.
French authorities have now identified the six bodies that have been recovered from the Airbus 320 which crashed into the sea off the southern city of Perpignan in November.
The New Zealand families leave Auckland today with Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe and other officials to bring them home.
French investigators are expected to call a media conference in the next two days to release the names of the victims whose bodies have been recovered and reveal details of the last words of the crew before the plane plunged into the Mediterranean.
Efforts are continuing to retrieve the seventh body from the plane wreckage on the bottom of the ocean.
The two others who died were the German pilots who were flying the aircraft on an acceptance flight before it was handed back to Air New Zealand after a two-year charter with the German company XL Airways.
Southland couple Herb and Moria Horrell said last night they were relieved their son, Captain Brian Horrell, 52, would finally return home this week.
Mrs Horrell told the Southland Times from their Tuatapere home yesterday they had been unofficially told their son's remains were among the six bodies recovered.
Captain Horrell's wife Shale, his daughter Olivia and his son Logan were among those heading to France today.
The other New Zealanders who died on the flight were engineers Murray White, 37, from Auckland, Michael Gyles, 49, from Christchurch, and Noel Marsh, 35, from Christchurch, who all worked for Air New Zealand, and Civil Aviation Authority airworthiness inspector Jeremy Cook, 58, of Wellington.
The bodies were unrecognisable and needed extensive DNA testing to be identified.
The airline said yesterday the identification would mark "an important step in bringing closure for the families of the men lost".
- NZPA
