Crashed German airliner's black box found, investigation under way

Wreckage is seen where a Germanwings Airbus A320 airliner has crashed in the French Alps between Barcelonnette and Digne on March 24, 2015. The Airbus operated by Germanwings crashed in the Alps in southern France with 150 people on board, including two babies, the airline confirmed. (Photo/ Agencies)

French gendarmes late Tuesday found one of the two black boxes of a German passenger plane that crashed in southern France with 150 people on board, while a joint international probe into the cause of the accident is under way.

The black box is used for recording conversations in the cockpit of the ill-fated plane, an Airbus 320 of Germanwings, a low-cost airline owned by German flag carrier Lufthansa, France's BFMTV reported.

The jetliner was on its way from Barcelona, Spain, to the German city of Duesseldorf when it crashed early Tuesday. French President Francois Hollande said there might be no survivors among the 144 passengers and six crew members.

The BFMTV report said the other black box, which is used for storing flight data, has not yet been retrieved, adding that search and rescue operations have been currently suspended but will resume Wednesday morning.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who was at the site of the crash, said the flight recorder would be transferred to investigative services.

"The black box will be analyzed in the coming hours to allow the investigation to move quickly," he said, noting that measures had been taken to prepare the crash zone for the investigation so it could take place under the best conditions.

AOG MODE

The Germanwings plane, which left Barcelona Tuesday morning for Duesseldorf airport, started to descent shortly after reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet and crashed in a snow covered area in southern French Alps.

Causes of the crash remained unclear. The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) has sent investigators to France and a joint investigation by France, Germany and Spain is opened to find out the causes of the tragedy. A group of experts from Lufthansa, Germanwings and Airbus were also dispatched later Tuesday to the crash site.

A spokeswoman for Lufthansa told Xinhua that the plane had a technical problem with its nose landing door and was prevented from flying in Duesseldorf airport Monday.

She thus confirmed a previous report from German Der Spiegel magazine that the plane was in "Aircraft on ground" (AOG) mode one day before its crash.

The problem was then "completely solved" and left "no security risks," stressed the spokeswoman. And the plane returned to normal operation Monday morning.