KEY POINTS:
One of the flight recorders on board the crashed Air New Zealand Airbus has reportedly been recovered as family members of two of the dead New Zealanders have arrived in France to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.
Two Germans and five New Zealanders aboard the Airbus A320 are dead after it crashed into the Mediterranean off the coast of France while on a test flight on Thursday local time (Friday morning NZT).
The recovered flight recorder is expected to throw light on what happened in the final seconds before the plane crashed into the ocean.
Air New Zealand group general manager Ed Sims said yesterday retrieving the flight recorders was a vital step in finding out the cause of the crash.
The plane went down after an hour-long flight as it was approaching the airport at the city of Perpignan.
Two bodies, still to be identified, have so far been recovered and French authorities have told Air New Zealand that the plane broke up on impact and there was no chance of any survivors being found.
An Air New Zealand pilot and three engineers were on the flight, as well as a New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority official and two pilots from German charter airline XL Airways, which had been leasing the plane since 2006.
Air New Zealand staff killed were Auckland pilot Captain Brian Horrell, 52; Murray White, 37, an engineer from Auckland; Michael Gyles, 49, and Noel Marsh, both engineers from Christchurch.
The Civil Aviation Authority official was Jeremy Cook, 58, a Wellington engineer.
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe, along with the family of one engineer on the fatal flight and Mr Cook's widow Sally, landed in Perpignan this morning.
They were accompanied by representatives of New Zealand Police, the Airline Pilots Association and the Transport Accident Investigation Commission.
During a stopover in Hong Kong Mr Fyfe said he had "one goal".
"That's to bring our team members and loved ones home to their families," he told a Sunday newspaper.
He said he would remain in France until all recovery efforts had been exhausted.
The airline has opened a book of condolences and Air New Zealand flags are being flown at half mast. Large bunches of flowers have been laid outside the Air New Zealand building in central Auckland.
Air New Zealand was not immediately available this morning to comment on a report that the plane crashed into the sea to to avoid the small French town of Canet.
"When the aircraft was over Canet, the pilot tried to restart it and it picked up," retired aviation mechanic Claude Pedro told Perpignan's L'Independant newspaper.
"It ascended and then cut out. That was it, then nothing. It fell. I can tell you it was only flying on one engine, I'm sure of that, I would have heard the sound of the second. And with only one engine there was nothing to be done.
"What is certain, is that the aircraft could easily have crashed and fallen on Canet. I think that pilot really wanted to avoid the town and risk to the inhabitants, which is why he really pushed it. In some way, they sacrificed their lives to save others and to try to save the aircraft."
- NZPA
