Investigators recover black box data from France crash

Le Bourget, France // French investigators have extracted “usable data” from a black box recovered from the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday, but said they still had no idea of the cause.

Remi Jouty, head of French air crash investigation agency BEA, said there was still not “the slightest explanation” at this stage for why the Airbus A320 went down, killing all 150 people on board.

“We have just succeeded in extracting usable data from the cockpit voice recorder,” he said, referring to the black box that records sounds and conversations from the cockpit.

He said investigators had not yet analysed the recordings, but ruled out the possibility of an explosion, saying “the plane was flying right to the end”.

“We have the entire flight recorded, but we haven’t analysed all the sounds and speech on the file,” Mr Jouty said. “We we hope to have the first rough ideas in a matter of days.”

“At this stage, clearly, we are not in a position to have the slightest explanation or interpretation on the reasons that could have led this plane to descend ... or the reasons why it did not respond to attempts to contact it by air traffic controllers.”

He was optimistic that the second black box, which records technical flight data, would be found soon, given that the debris was spread over a relatively limited area.

French president Francois Hollande said earlier that the casing of the second black box had been found, but not the box itself.

Mr Hollande and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, flew over the crash site to see the devastation for themselves before meeting rescue workers outside the crisis centre set up on Tuesday after the worst crash in France in four decades.

Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, also visited the centre to be briefed on the gruelling rescue operation in difficult mountain terrain where Flight 4U9525 crashed early on Tuesday en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

Buffeted by strong mountain winds, the ashen-faced leaders spent several minutes inspecting a line-up of blue-uniformed rescue workers, chatting intently with the help of interpreters.

“My deepest sympathies with the families and all my thanks for the friendship of the people of this region and in France,” wrote Ms Merkel in a book of condolence.

Grieving relatives were also gathering near the crash site, where a counselling unit has been established.

Authorities are still baffled as to why the plane suddenly began a fatal eight-minute descent shortly after reaching cruising altitude.

“It is inexplicable,” Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said in Frankfurt.

“The plane was in perfect condition and the two pilots were experienced.”

Germanwings is Lufthansa’s low-cost airline.

* Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse