Searchers located the black boxes of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea off Lebanon last month killing 90 people, Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said on Saturday.
"The boxes have been found under the rear part of the fuselage" which was found on Saturday morning, the Lebanese minister told AFP.
"Lebanese army divers have gone down to retrieve them, but this operation will take time," said Aridi.
Lebanese army divers have gone down to retrieve them, but this operation will take time
"We have to be cautious because we must preserve the data contained in the boxes," he added.
Aridi stressed special measures would be taken to bring to the surface the flight recorders in a way to avoid any damage that could be detrimental to the information they contain.
The minister also said he had been informed by the Syrian authorities that debris from the plane had been found in the Mediterranean Sea off the western city of Lattakia.
He said earlier that the search vessel, Ocean Alert, had located the rear sections of the aircraft's cabin.
The Boeing 737-800 plane was carrying mostly Lebanese and Ethiopian passengers and was headed to Addis Ababa on Jan. 25. It crashed minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather, plunging in a ball of fire in the sea.
Lebanese and international search teams have been scouring the Mediterranean along Beirut's coast to look for the bodies of victims and wreckage of the plane.
The flight recorders should shed light on why the pilot did not respond to a request to change direction even though he acknowledged the control tower's commands.
The plane had apparently made a sharp turn before disappearing off the radar. Lebanese officials have said it was too early to draw any conclusion of pilot error.
At least 15 bodies and some body parts have been recovered.
The eight-year-old plane last underwent a maintenance check on Dec. 25 and no technical problems were found.
Comments »