Second black box of crashed Yemenia jet located
Search teams have located the second flight data recorder of the
Yemenia jet that crashed off the Comoros islands on June 30, killing 152
people, the chief investigator said Saturday.
“The investigation commission confirms that the second flight
recorder, the cockpit voice recorder... has been located and operations
to retrieve it have begun,” chief investigator Ali Abdou Mohamed said in
a statement.
The first black box was located Friday after a week of search led by
a specially-equipped French vessel in the Indian Ocean in a zone where
the average depth is estimated at 1,200 metres (3,600 feet).The causes
of the crash of the plane, which was carrying mainly passengers of
Comoran origin living in France, remain unknown.
Some sources blamed the state of the plane, which did not satisfy
European safety regulations, but the investigation has yet to establish
this.
The passengers, who were travelling from France to the Comoros, had
changed planes in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and boarded the Airbus A310.
The plane plunged into the Indian Ocean as it was trying to land in
Moroni.
The sole survivor was Bahia Bakari, a 13-year-old girl who lost her
mother in the crash and clung to a floating piece of debris for eight
hours before being rescued.
The investigation team is made up of officials from the Comoros,
Yemen and France and is headed by the Comoros authorities.
-AFP
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