Lebanon recovers crashed Ethiopian jet's black box

Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said navy commandos had also located parts of the fuselage of the plane, where most of the victims' bodies are believed trapped. Eight bodies were recovered.

A security official said the main part of the "black box" containing the voice recorder was retrieved hours after teams recovered the jet's data recorder. The boxes were transported to Beirut's naval base and handed to the investigating team.

The recorders will be flown to France for analysis, the official said.

"The priority now is searching for the rest of the bodies of victims," Aridi told Reuters.

The Boeing 737-800 plane, carrying mostly Lebanese and Ethiopian passengers, crashed minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather, plunging in a ball of fire into the sea. It was bound for the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The flight recorders should provide a clearer picture of why the pilot failed to respond to the control tower's request to change direction, even though he acknowledged their commands.