Capetonian,
Re your quote from the French Transport Minister, a clip of which I've seen in the this morning on the English-speaking satellite-TV station
France24:
Elle a également précisé que des corps identifiables figuraient toujours dans l'habitacle de l'appareil.
"Je ne suis pas technicienne mais tout n'a pas explosé, il y a une partie de l'habitacle et dans cette partie de l'habitacle, il y a des corps", a-t-elle dit, ajoutant qu'il y avait des corps identifiables. Aucune information sur le nombre de corps découverts n'a été dévoilée.
Was waiting for one of our Francophone friends to interpret the first paragraph, as a literal translation leads to confusion, but I'll have a stab at it:
She also specified that some identifiable bodies would [figure among those found in?] the cockpit [and/or cabin] of the machine.
Although
France24 translated
"habitacle" as "cockpit", my Larousse dictionary says the word is also used for "passenger compartment" in the case of cars. So there is room for ambiguity here.
Now for her second quoted paragraph:
"I'm not a technician but all had not disintegrated, there's a part of the [cockpit/cabin] and in this part of [it] there are some bodies", she said, in adding that there were identifiable bodies. No information on the number of bodies found has been revealed.
Could one of our bi-linguists comment?
Re identification, teeth may be one expedient.