BBC

Remains of all 67 victims of the deadly US Navy plane crash off Japan have been accounted for, a senior US military official has said.

The official said on Monday that it took more than 10 days but all remains were found and accounted for. The US military is now working with Japanese officials to return the bodies or cremated ashes to their families.

It was not clear if the plane's flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder had been recovered. Both are considered critical in determining what caused the crash.

The official said that a Navy C-130 airplane has been sent to Japan as the US military moves to transport remains back to the United States for burial.

A spokesman for the US 7th Fleet said last week that the Navy was considering using DNA samples and dental records to help identify all the service members aboard the plane. He did not know if those techniques were used.

The C-2 Greyhound aircraft went down Thursday in heavy seas about 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast of Japan's remote Okinawa island after leaving Japan for the USS Ronald Reagan, which was on a routine visit to the area.

The Navy has said it does not yet know what caused the crash but that initial evidence indicated that the plane broke apart under stress before hitting the water.

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