PARIS — The chief executives of Air France-KLM and Airbus welcomed Tuesday the recovery of the two flight recorders from the submerged wreck of an Air France flight that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, saying they hoped that the data was usable and would enable investigators to determine the cause of the accident.
The French aviation accident investigation bureau said that a search effort retrieved Tuesday the cockpit voice recorder, also known as a black box, from the wreck of the Airbus A330 plane, in which all 228 passengers and crew lost their lives. A remote-controlled submersible vehicle brought the plane’s flight data recorder to the surface Sunday.
“We are excited by the news, and we hope that the data is still readable,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders said in a statement. “Only this will contribute to understanding the events that led to the accident. We are pleased that over the last two years, we have pushed to continue the investigation and the search, no matter what the cost and efforts.”
Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon called the recovery of the second recorder “another decisive step forward in the inquiry.” Gourgeon said in a statement that he hoped that the data from the recorders “may be used and provide answers to questions that relatives of the victims, Air France and the entire airline industry have been asking for nearly two years about why this tragic accident occurred.”
Investigators suspect that faulty air-speed sensors might have been a contributing factor in the crash of the plane en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro on June 1, 2009, but without data from the flight recorders, it was impossible to determine the exact cause of the incident.
Both Air France and Airbus were cited in lawsuits accusing them of manslaughter for not having responded quickly enough to reports that the air-speed probes were giving inaccurate readings.
The two companies paid the estimated €9 million ($13.3 million) cost of the latest mid-Atlantic search effort.