@cee cee
The news report interviewed someone from the hospital who said that the bodies recovered so far were in one piece, only bloated from being in the water. Also, the bodies recovered by the US ship today were reported to be 30 miles (or was it kilometres) away from the other bodies, and some were still strapped to their seats. That seems to suggest a possible mid-air breakup.
Presumably a spread of bodies (I've read 5km somewhere, so this is yet another unclear area), could be caused by sea currents over the course of five-six days? So not necessarily down to the bodies being released from the airframe at height.