French investigators say that flight recorders from an Air France jet found in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean nearly two years after it crashed are readable.
The French air accident investigation agency BEA has said that international investigators downloaded the material from the “black box” voice and data recorders over the weekend.
It says all data and recordings was retrievable.
The BEA says investigators will now analyse the material, which will take several weeks.
The recorders were located by underwater robots and hoisted up from depths of nearly 4,000 metres earlier this month, in one of the most expensive and complicated air crash investigations in history.
Meanwhile, forensics experts from France's police force will be examining tissue samples from two bodies that were raised from the plane's site earlier this month. All 228 people aboard Air France Flight 447 were killed when it crashed in the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Automatic messages sent by the Airbus 330's computers showed the aircraft was receiving false airspeed readings. Investigators have said the crash was likely caused by a series of problems and not just a sensor error.
