Italian crash investigators have succeeded in extracting data from the cockpit voice recorder of an Air Algérie Lockheed Martin L100-30 Hercules that crashed in northern Italy late last month, despite the "disastrous" condition in which it was found.

Flight has photos of the crash scene and the condition of the flight data recorder when it arrived in the Agenzia Nazionale della Sicurezza del Volo's (ANSV) facilities (see www.flightglobal.com). Extracting the ribbon and decoding it was a "demanding job", but the content is complete, and the information is "valid and comprehensible", says the ANSV. The aircraft crashed en route from Algiers to Frankfurt, killing the three crew on board.

Source: Flight International