It's an old message, but this has haunted me for ages. It must have been horrible for the families, not knowing for thirty years what happened to the pilots, especially given that they disappeared over the UK.
In a situation like that how would the families be notified of the recovery of the crew? A telephone call or letter seems impersonal but the thought of an officer appearing at the door in 1975 is odd.
The crew were from Eastern Europe - Polish or Czech, I don't recall which. The pilot's family (a noble family) were contacted. The Nav's, there was no trace of IIRC. This was in the mid 70s when the country was still the other side of the iron Curtain.
If a body was discovered it would probably take some time to ID it - maybe they'd ask the family for a DNA Sample
No DNA sampling in those days. But they had their dog tags on them - which is their function. I don't recall if the Police were involved, I suspect they were. But the aircraft still had live ordinance which was the pressing issue.
The aircraft was listed as missing in action and therefore it was not known where it came down.