The cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of the Germanwings plane that crashed killing all 150 people aboard has been damaged and has been taken to Paris for analysis, a source close to the inquiry said Wednesday.
"The black box that was found is the CVR," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) "was damaged. It has been transferred to Paris this morning."
A second so-called black box, in this case recording flight data, has yet to be found on the mountain in the French Alps where the Airbus A320 went down Tuesday.
Photos issued by the BEA crash investigation office showed the black box — in fact coloured orange — in a badly mangled state, its metal casing twisted and ripped by the force of the crash.
Officials acknowledge it is badly damaged but say they still expect to retrieve some data from it, although it may take some time.
They hope it will offer clues as to why the plane plunged for eight minutes out of a clear sky in an accident that Germanwings' parent company Lufthansa has described as "inexplicable".
