Officials investigating the crash of an Airbus A320 in the French Alps Tuesday said they have been able to extract a usable audio recording from a battered "black box" recovered at the site, France's aviation security investigator BEA said Wednesday, reports Voice of America.
“We just have been able to extract a usable audio data file,” Rémi Jouty told a news conference, adding that it was too early to draw any conclusions about the causes of the crash. The black box was being examined in Paris, with authorities listening to the pilots' words in the final moments before the accident.
“Detailed work will be carried on the file to understand interpret the voices and sounds that can be heard on the file,” he said, adding that he expected to have more analysis of the voices in “a matter of days.”
Earlier, French president François Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy visited a makeshift rescue base near the Germanwings Airbus crash site Wednesday.
Hollande and Merkel flew over the crash site to see the devastation for themselves, then met with rescue workers. Rajoy also visited the center to be briefed on the grueling rescue operation where Flight 4U9525 crashed early Tuesday, scattering debris over a wide area. It is France’s worst aviation disaster in 15 years.
Hollande promised that French investigators would do everything to determine the cause of the crash that killed all 150 people aboard Germanwings Flight 4U 9525.
“Dear Angela, dear Mariano, rest assured ... we will find out everything and we will shed full light on the circumstances of this catastrophe,” Hollande told Merkel and Rajoy. A majority of victims were Germans or Spaniards.
Hollande said the frame of a second black box had been found but that investigators were still searching for the box itself. However, Jouty would not confirm that any part of it had been recovered.