Plans Being Developed For Recovery

A submarine sent to look for the Cockpit Voice and Data Recorders from the Yemenia Airlines Airbus A310 which crashed off the coast of Comoros Tuesday has detected the signals from the black boxes. Officials are now planning how to recover them.

The plane went down Tuesday after missing an approach to Moroni airport in the Yemeni capital. 152 were killed, but a young woman, now reported to be a 12 year old girl, survived. The Associated Press reports she was found holding on to some debris in the water.

The weather was bad at the time of the crash, with heavy thunderstorms and winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour.

In a one-line statement, the French accident investigation authority BEA said it did not know when the aircraft's CVR and CDR would be recovered, but Yemeni officials said they should have them "within days" according to the AP. The chief of Yemen's Civil Aviation Authority, Hamed Ahmad Faraj, said special equipment was being brought from Djibouti by the French to help in the search.

Meanwhile, thousands gathered over the weekend in France to protest the condition of Yemenia Airlines equipment flying between Marseilles and Moroni. Protesters said Yemenia uses newer, safer planes on the European legs of the flight, but switches to airplanes with serious safety issues for the final segments. Yemenia has suspended operations between Marseilles and Moroni for an "indefinite period" following the protests.

FMI: http://www.bea-fr.org/anglaise/