One of the flight recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed off the Lebanese coast last month has been recovered.

The Lebanese defence ministry confirms in a statement that the recorder has been retrieved and returned to Beirut for transfer to the commission of inquiry.

It states that the vessel Ocean Alert, which has been undertaking work to detect the wreckage about 3km off the coast south of Beirut, is to conduct imaging to aid the retrieval of aircraft sections and victims.

Another ship, the heavy-lifting vessel USNS Grapple, is participating in the recovery effort.

One unconfirmed report states that the instrument found is the flight-data recorder.

Flight ET409 to Addis Ababa came down shortly after take-off from Beirut on 25 January.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news