Ethiopian Jet's Black Box Recovered

Lebanon's marine commandos today recovered the black box of the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed into the Mediterranean last month, a Lebanese army officer said. The Boeing 737 crashed Jan. 25 minutes after takeoff from Beirut during a fierce thunderstorm. All 90 people on board died. The officer said the black box was "carefully" pulled out and taken to a Lebanese naval base in Beirut.

The Lebanese army officer said he did not know if the box recovered was the data flight recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, or both. Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi had earlier said that the black box was located at a depth of 150 feet off the coastal village of Naameh just south of Beirut airport. Earlier in the day, the officer said search crews have located the jet's cockpit, but there were no bodies inside. Fifteen bodies have been recovered. (More Ethiopian Airlines stories.)