Grief haunts Flight 447 victim's relatives

Hope is giving way to grief as it's now almost certain that passengers and crew of Air France flight AF 447 will never return.

Says Patricia Coakley, wife of victim Arthur Coakley: "Maybe today, I'm realising he might not come back. But I kept phoning him on his mobile and he's pretty useless with mobiles, he hates them. You know, he'd like a tin of Heinz baked beans and a bit of string. But he never has his switched off, on rather. But his is switched off and I haven't tried it today, but yesterday it was ringing so maybe they're not at the bottom of the sea. That's my hope but I think it's maybe fading today."

Aine Rooney, friend of Eithne Walls, says: "The shock is just unbearable to be honest."

It was a holiday that turned into a tragedy for 10 salesmen of a French firm. This trip was a vacation they had won to Brazil with their families for their good.

Says Laurent Bouveresse, CEO of CGED: "Branch managers have met most of the families of those people that disappeared and what we want to do is first have contact with them."

There is a sense of relief for those lucky ones who missed Flight 447.

Prof Claude Jaffiol says: "I wanted to come home relatively soon, for professional reasons, and I asked a friend, from the consul in Brazilia, to get tickets on the flight that disappeared, which was impossible. She insisted but we could not get those tickets. Air France told them it was not possible. So we left on today's flight and so we escaped this terrible event and it was a miracle I can say."