Investigators to begin analysing crashed Ethiopia Airlines flight's black box
Investigators have released an image of one of the flight's black boxes, but are not sure whether the data is retrievable.
Thursday 14 March 2019 20:02, UK
The two recorders from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines jet are set to be analysed by a French accident investigation team.
BEA officials will study the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder which were recovered from the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
A photograph of the flight data recorder has been released showing damage on one side - but the crash-proof housing protecting the critical recording chip seemed to be intact.
A BEA spokesperson said it was unclear whether the data is retrievable and said no time frame has been given on how long the analysis could take.
US investigators will also be taking part in the investigation.
More than 40 countries, including the UK and the US, have grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes or refused to let them into their airspace following Sunday's crash that left all 157 people on board dead.
It comes just six months after the same model was involved in the Lion Air crash in Indonesia which killed 189 people.
Japan joined the countries banning the aircraft on Thursday, a day after the US issued an emergency order grounding all MAX 8 and 9 planes.
US authorities said the aircraft would be grounded for "weeks" at a minimum and cited new information which showed similarities between the two crashes.
Lion Air officials said sensors on their plane produced erroneous information on its last four flights, triggering an automatic nose-down command which the pilots of the fatal crash struggled with.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said its pilots received training to deal with the problem, and Boeing sent further instructions to pilots after the crash.
About 200 family members of those killed in the latest crash stormed out of a briefing with Ethiopian Airlines officials, saying they were frustrated by a lack of answers.
The airline has opened a call-in centre which is open 18 hours a day to respond to family members' questions.
Relatives also visited the site of the crash and were seen picking through the rubble for any sign of their loved ones.