Plane's black boxes found after sea crash

Searchers today found the flight recorders of an Airbus A320 passenger jet which crashed off southern France, killing two people and leaving five missing.

Assistant prosecutor Dominique Alzeari, in Perpignan, said divers were gradually locating the wreckage but would not be able to retrieve the black boxes until the weekend.

The search was continuing despite choppy seas.

The hunt for survivors was halted this morning, a day after the plane plunged into the Mediterranean while approaching Perpignan’s airport.

The chief executive of the plane’s owner, Air New Zealand, said two Germans and five New Zealanders were on the maintenance flight.

The plane was leased to charter airline XL Airways Germany.