Black boxes from crashed Ethiopia plane sent to France for analysis

The black boxes from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed on Sunday in Ethiopia have been sent to France for analysis, Ethiopian Airlines said on Thursday.

"An Ethiopian delegation led by Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has flown the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) to Paris, France for investigation," the airline said in a statement.

Sunday’s crash after take-off from Addis Ababa killed 157 people from about 30 nations in the second such calamity involving Boeing’s flagship new model in six months.

Ethiopia said on Wednesday it will send the FDR and the CVR to France because the east African country lacks the facilities to carry out the detailed analysis required to determine the cause of the deadly disaster.

The devices from the US made aircraft will be analyzed by France's BEA air accident investigation agency.

Analysts backed the decision by Africa's biggest airline to send the black boxes to France.

Flight ET 302, heading to Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed about 50km outside the Ethiopian capital six minutes after taking off.

All 157 people on board - 149 passengers and eight crew - died in the crash.

Possible links between the accidents have rocked the aviation industry, scared passengers worldwide, and left the world’s biggest planemaker scrambling to prove the safety of a money-spinning model intended to be the standard for decades.

Nations around the world, including an initially reluctant the United States, have suspended the 371 MAX models in operation, though airlines are largely coping by switching planes.

After an apparent tussle over where the investigation should be held, the flight data and cockpit voice recorders arrived in Paris and France’s BEA air accident investigation agency said it would receive them later in the day.