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Investigators trying to find the cause of the Air New Zealand Airbus crash off France hope to get crucial evidence from the cockpit voice recorder.
The black box recorder, one of two on the plane, is on its way
to Paris to be checked by experts.
It should reveal the last conversations of the flight crew
before the A320 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea on
Friday.
French officials expect initial results from the cockpit
recorder to be known within 48 hours, including the pilots' last
conversations.
And it's likely the second data recorder, which is yet to be
recovered from the tail section, will also reveal valuable
information. Poor visibility is hampering the search for the flight
data recorder.
Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe says the data recorder will provide a more complete picture of what went wrong.
He says searchers believe they know where the data recorder is
but they haven't yet been able to locate it with visibility of only
about half a metre for divers. The wreckage is about the 40 metres
below the surface.
Air New Zealand has been working closely with family members of the
five New Zealand victims.
A number of the family members have arrived in Perpignan along with
Air New Zealand staff, New Zealand police and an air accident
investigator.
The sea and shoreline search is also continuing for the remaining
five bodies from the crew of seven - two Germans and five New
Zealanders.
New Zealand police will help identify the only two bodies recovered from the crash so far and DNA will be used in this process.
Scattered remains of the aircraft are still being recovered, some as far away as the Spanish border.
Fyfe arrived in Perpignan early on Sunday morning NZ time, accompanied by the family of Murray White, one of the men missing.
Mike and Colleen White, the parents of Murray White, say the family wishes to acknowledge the support that their family, friends and Air New Zealand have provided during this difficult time.
They say in a statement that he had followed in his father's footsteps by joining Air New Zealand as an Aircraft Engineering apprentice 19 years ago.
He was recently promoted within the airline, leading to his being in Perpignan.
The Whites say Murray is the father of an eight-year-old son and in a family partnership which had been planning to move into a new home in the next three weeks.
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