Investigators scour Pakistan air crash site for clues and cockpit voice recorder

A team of Pakistani and French investigators on Wednesday sifted through the wreckage of a Pakistani airliner that crashed in the southern city of Karachi last Friday, searching for clues around what caused the worst airline disaster in the country in years. Investigators were also hunting for the Airbus A320 jet's cockpit voice recorder, said a spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines. "The flight data recorder has been found; the cockpit voice recorder is still being traced," PIA's spokesman said. Earlier, the spokesman told media the black box had been found and it contained both the data and voice recorder. Parts of the wreckage of the A320 were removed from the site on Wednesday after extracting them from building rubble in the densely populated area where the PIA jet crashed. Under international aviation rules, French investigators from the BEA - the French air safety investigation authority for civil aviation - have joined the Pakistan-led probe because the 15-year-old Airbus jet was designed in France. Their arrival was initially hampered by widespread travel bans in force to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The French team and technical representatives of Airbus and engine maker Safran had to be flown in on an Airbus A330-900 test plane. The French team is now helping Pakistani authorities search for the cockpit voice recorder and examining the fuselage, which ploughed between buildings and was partly buried under rubble. Particular focus will be on the plane's CFM56 engines, one of which plunged into the side of a building, according to a person close to the investigation.<br/>