PARIS - Officials in Comoros say investigators have retrieved the flight data recorder from a Yemenia Airways flight that crashed in the Indian Ocean on June 30.
The Comoros investigation team set up to probe the accident says the black box was picked up underwater Friday morning off the coast of the island nation's capital, Moroni.
The statement provided no further information. The fate of the airplane's cockpit voice recorder was not known.
The Yemenia Flight 626 crash killed 152 people flying from Paris to Moroni via Yemen. One teenage girl survived.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PARIS (AP) -- The Comoros investigation team says the flight data recorder from the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed June 30 off the Comoros Islands has been located and recovery operations have started.
The announcement represents an important step in the investigation of the crash that killed 152 people flying from Paris to Moroni, the Comoros capital, via Yemen.
Yemenia Flight 626 crashed into the Indian Ocean as it was landing.
The signal beacons of the flight data and cockpit recorders -- key to determining the cause of the crash -- were detected in early July.
The chief investigator of the Comoros accident bureau, Ali Abdou Mohamed, said in a statement Friday that the data recorder has been clearly located and recovery operations were under way.
