An Air New Zealand Boeing 747 carrying their coffins touched down in Auckland shortly before midday and after waiting for other passengers to disembark, the aircraft was towed to a hangar and the doors were closed for a private ceremony to welcome the four back home.
Family members who had flown to France with Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe to accompany the bodies back were met on the aircraft inside the hangar by other family members who stayed in New Zealand.
As they got off the aircraft and the coffins were unloaded, New Zealand singer and songwriter Dave Dobbyn sang his hit song Welcome Home.
Mr Fyfe paid tribute to the four men, the fifth man whose body had yet to be found, Air New Zealand engineer Murray White, 37, and the two German pilots who were flying the plane.
Investigators believe the plane had a power surge which put it into a climb from which it could not recover and it plunged nose first into the sea on November 28. The crash was 29 years to the day after New Zealand's worst air disaster when an Air New Zealand DC10 hit Mt Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers and crew.
The four victims who were brought back to New Zealand today were Air NZ Captain Brian Horrell, 52, from Auckland, Christchurch engineers Michael Gyles, 49, and Noel Marsh, 35, and Civil Aviation Authority airworthiness inspector Jeremy Cook, 58, of Wellington.
At the service were families of the four men, friends and several hundred colleagues.
The airline said the families would then carry their loved ones to hearses for their journeys to their last resting place.
Two of the coffins would remain in Auckland and the other two would go to Christchurch.
Mr Fyfe said in a statement the arrival was an "extremely emotional time for the families and friends of the lost men, and Air New Zealanders around the world".
