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Navy locates both crash recorders

From CNN Correspondents Chris Burns and Sandy Petrykowski

Passengers' belongings recovered from the Red Sea.
Passengers' belongings recovered from the Red Sea.

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Recovery crafts continue to search the Red Sea crash site.
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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (CNN) -- French naval teams have located the second flight data recorder from the wreckage of an Egyptian airliner in the Red Sea.

However, they said on Wednesday it could be weeks before the data recorders, sometimes known as "black boxes," are retrieved because of the depth of the water the plane is lying in.

The data on the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder could help explain what caused Saturday's crash of the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 that killed all 148 aboard, including 135 French tourists and the 13 Egyptian crew. Four of the passengers had dual U.S.-French citizenship.

Both recorders sent signals to the search teams, indicating that they are about a half mile (800 meters) underwater and about 1,000 feet apart, according to Rear Adm. Jacques Mazars of the French Navy.

The first data recorder was found on Tuesday.

That distance is unreachable by divers who can go no deeper than 115 feet (35 m). In about a week, a French robot, "Super Achille," will arrive in Egypt to search for the submerged data recorders.

The Red Sea's underwater terrain can drop from 200 to 1,000 feet in a short distance, which could complicate the robot's search, Mazars said.

While French divers, working with the Egyptians, sought more bodies and wreckage Wednesday, search teams used a mechanical arm with sensing equipment to try to pinpoint the signals from the second recorder, Valerie Fournier, a French military spokeswoman, told CNN.

Families of the French victims arrived Wednesday with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin due by Wednesday night. Ceremonies to honor the dead -- on land and at sea -- are scheduled for Thursday.

French officials have indicated that some bodies may never be found.

The crash was the worst air disaster for France in history in terms of French casualties. Officials have said mechanical failure is the most likely cause.


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