Leave 'em down there

Ian Sample has an article in The Guardian concernging a difficult question about an ugly disaster:

The recovery and identification of bodies from the sunken wreckage of Air France flight 447 may bring much-needed closure for loved ones of the dead, but the operation would be far from straightforward. The immediate issue is how to raise large parts of the aircraft fuselage, which have been found to contain bodies, from the seafloor more than 3,800m beneath the surface.
The task calls for "work class" remotely operated vehicles, which can operate to depths of four kilometres. They will have to sink down and attach cables to pieces of the wreckage, so that they can be slowly winched up. Another option would be to connect inflatable buoys and float the debris to the surface. The salvage vessels overhead would use auxiliary thrusters and a global positioning system to ensure they do not drift away from the site.
The bodies themselves have spent nearly two years in the water, but the cold depths of the Atlantic ocean are likely to have preserved them to a great extent. In the deep sea environment, decay slows to a halt because the bacteria that cause it become inactive. Marine life that might feed on the remains is also unlikely to be abundant at these depths.
Investigators will use a number of techniques to identify the bodies. Their clothing will have largely survived, particularly items constructed from manmade fibers. Pockets might contain wallets, plane tickets, or passports that can be used for identification purposes.
More direct means of identification can be tougher. Bodies that have been submerged for a long time are hard to identify through fingerprints, because the surface layer of skin can peel off, leaving depressions instead of ridges, which are hard to get a print from.
The most reliable means of scientific identification is DNA matching to living relatives, but experience from the 2004 Sumatran tsunami showed that the best laboratories failed to obtain readable DNA in around one in five of the dead.
There are ethical and emotional considerations too. The act of raising bodies from the wreckage might not bring the closure that authorities and loved ones hope for, said Derrick Pounder, professor of forensic medicine at Dundee University. When remains are recovered, they might be only partial, and some bodies may be left behind or never identified. "The issue is whether it is appropriate. At the present time it is a grave on the seabed and it is possible to have wreath-laying ceremonies at sea for those who are grieving. If you know who was on the flight, you know who is dead and where their grave is. If you start to recover the bodies, you may end up opening Pandora's box," Pounder said.