Yemen/Comoros

Comoros black box recovered

Article published on the 2009-08-28 Latest update 2009-08-28 14:14 TU

Investigators have found one of the black boxes of the Yemenia Airlines Airbus A310 which crashed off the Comoros in June
(Photo: AFP)

The flight data recorder from the Yemenia Airlines Airbus A310 that crashed in to the Indian Ocean on June 30 off the Comoros Islands has been recovered.

The plane plunged into the sea as it was trying to land in Moroni, killing 152 people.

The only survivor was a 13-year-old girl, Bahia Bakari, who lost her mother in the crash and clung to a floating piece of debris for eight hours before being rescued.

"The investigation commission confirms that the flight data recorder... was recovered today at 8:30 am (0530 UT)," chief investigator Ali Abdou Mohamed said in a statement on Friday.

The signal beacons of the flight data and cockpit recorders — key to determining the cause of the crash — were detected in early July.

A specially-equipped French vessel has led the search in the Indian Ocean for the two black boxes in a zone where the average depth is estimated at 1,200 metres.

The fate of the airplane's cockpit voice recorder, however, is not known.