KEY POINTS:
The families of the five New Zealanders killed when an Air New Zealand plane crashed near Perpignan in France have begun returning home.
The Airbus A320 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on November 28, killing the two German pilots, four Air New Zealand personnel and the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) engineer aboard.
Late last week, family members of the 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 plane crashed.
The families have begun to return to New Zealand because of uncertainty over when the bodies will be released, Air New Zealand chief executive officer Rob Fyfe said.
The first of the families left Perpignan on Saturday and the last will leave on Tuesday.
"Each family has been going through its own grieving process as they come to terms with their tragic loss," Mr Fyfe said.
"Many of the families have spent the past few days visiting the workplace and hotels where our men were based in Perpignan, meeting with friends and work colleagues who they interacted with while here, as well as seeing some of the sights they had heard about from their loved ones."
DNA tests have been held on the first three bodies recovered from the crash, but it may be some time before the results are released, he said. A fourth body was recovered from the wreckage of the plane on Saturday.
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 CAA inspector Jeremy Cook, 58.
Mr Fyfe said it will take some days for the bodies to be released once identification is complete. It was an agonising wait for the families and friends involved, he said.
Air New Zealand had "nothing but admiration" for the French authorities involved.
"The search and recovery team and investigators have done everything possible in this operation and we will forever be grateful."
- NZPA
