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PARIS - A week after their lives were changed forever by a disaster on the other side of the world, relatives of the five men who died when an Air New Zealand Airbus crashed into the Mediterranean held a ceremony for their loved ones on a beach at Canet-en-Roussillon.
At 4.46pm on Thursday (Friday NZ time), a group of 40 people stood in silence for a minute, many staring out towards the site of the disaster, some seven kilometres away.
Earlier on Thursday, some of the group had boarded two French marine rescue craft, with the escort of a gendarmerie vessel, and journeyed out to sea. They cast wreaths at the spot where the wrecked Airbus A-320 lies 40 metres beneath the waves.
Three bodies of the seven crew, comprising five New Zealanders and two German pilots, have so far been recovered. Choppy seas are hampering efforts to retrieve the other four.
It has been three full days since the last body was brought to the surface and there is concern that it may be weeks before winter weather relents and allows divers to replace underwater robots.
The zone remains off-limits to shipping, and the gendarmerie has reminded trawlers not to approach.
Air New Zealand has taken a full-page advertisement in two local papers in the western Mediterranean region, L'Independant and Midi Libre, thanking all those who have helped in the rescue effort.
"On behalf of the families of the missing crew, the 11,000 people of Air New Zealand and the four million people of New Zealand, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for what you have done in the search for our missing loved ones, colleagues and countrymen and the two German pilots who perished last week," Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe says in the advertisement that will run this weekend.
"We journeyed here in the hope of taking our boys home with us but we know the memory of them will always be here with you.
"Thank you with all our hearts."
On Wednesday (Thursday NZ) a group of some 20 family members met with the region's Prefect to express their gratitude for the rescue efforts, which had involved around 200 people.
Bill Marsh, whose 35-year-old son Noel was an engineer on board, said the mourners appreciated the discretion and respect that had been accorded to them by local people, the press reported.
"When we got back in the bus, some people silently gestured to us through the window. I was very touched, and will always remember it," Marsh said.
