Air France voice recorder found

3 May 2011 Last updated at 08:21 GMT The discovery of the Air France cockpit voice recorder marks the end of a long search The cockpit voice recorder from an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic two years ago has been found, French investigators have said.

The discovery comes two days after the airliner's flight data recorder was also retrieved from the ocean.

Both recorders are said to be in good physical condition.

The Airbus A330 was flying from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris when it went down on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 people on board.

"We can now hope to find out what truly happened within the next three weeks," French Transport Minister Thierry Mariani told French radio.

France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) said the so-called black box would be shipped back to France, probably by the end of next week.

"The outside appears to be in relatively good shape," a spokeswoman said, adding it would be possible to see if the recorder was usable only once it was opened in France.

Long search

Last week, the French search team found the outer casing and then the memory unit of of the flight data recorder. The crucial unit was located on Sunday and delivered to a search vessel.

The wreckage was discovered last month after a long search of 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of sea floor.

Air France flight 447 went down after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm, four hours following take-off from Rio de Janeiro.

Those on board came from more than 30 countries, though most were French, Brazilian or German.

Experts say the data in the two flight recorders is the only hope of finding out why the plane crashed into the sea.

The cockpit voice recorder - one of the so-called "black boxes" - contains vital information about the pilots' reactions.

The flight data recorder collects in-flight data from the plane's instruments, such as altitude, speed and rudder position.

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Air France flight recorder found

1 May 2011 Last updated at 20:57 GMT The recorder was found partially embedded in sand on the sea bed One of two flight recorders from an Air France plane that crashed in 2009 off the coast of Brazil has been recovered, officials say.

France's Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that the device was "in good physical condition".

French search teams last week found the outer casing of the so-called black box recorder, but not its memory.

The Air France Airbus plane went down in the Atlantic on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 people on board.

Cockpit conversations

The wreckage was discovered last month after a long search of 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of sea floor.

The remains of the plane were found only on a fourth attempt, using robots capable of operating 4,000m (13,120ft) below the ocean's surface.

The Paris-bound Air France jet went down after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm, four hours following take-off from Rio de Janeiro.

Those on board came from more than 30 countries, though most were French, Brazilian or German.

Experts say the data in the flight recorders - which records cockpit conversations - is the only hope of finding out why the plane crashed into the sea.

But one expert told the Associated Press that the data recorder's information may yet prove unusable, as it was subjected to underwater pressure for nearly two years.

"We can't say in advance that we're going to be able to read it until it's been opened," a spokeswoman told the news agency.

The data recorders are expected to be sent back to Paris for testing.

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