“The cover of the black box has been found but not all parts of the black box,” Hollande told reporters at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
According to previous media reports, the second black box is “severely damaged,” and its memory chip is dislodged.
Hollande, Merkel and Rajoy ensured that everything possible is being done to understand why the plane crashed, as well as recover and identify the victims.
Hollande noted that France has “world-recognized resources” to analyze such accidents, and praised the rescuers who are working in the difficultly accessible area of the plane crash.
The French air safety bureau BEA managed to extract "usable data" from the black box of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps Tuesday, the head of BEA Remi Jouty said in a press conference Wednesday.
According to Jouty, an audio recording has been extracted from the black box, but it has not been processed yet. There is no specific information of the recording, such as the languages spoken or the duration.
The second black box has not been located yet, according to Jouty.
Earlier in the day, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the first black box from the aircraft, found on Tuesday, had been damaged but it was possible to extract information from it.
According to Marseille Prosecutor General Brice Robin, the first data from the first in-flight recorder may be deciphered already later on Wednesday.
The Airbus A320 of Lufthansa's Germanwings low-cost airline, en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, crashed in southern France on Tuesday. All 150 people on board died in the crash.
