Black boxes of Ethiopia's crashed aircraft sent to France

Photo taken on March 11, 2019 shows the crash site of an Ethiopian Airlines plane near Bishoftu town, about 45 km from the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [Photo/Xinhua]

Ethiopian Airlines said Thursday that both data and voice recorders extracted from the crashed Ethiopian aircraft that killed all 157 aboard on Sunday have been sent to France.

"An Ethiopian delegation led by Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has flown the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) to Paris, France for investigation," the statement from the Ethiopian Airlines Group read.

The decision to send both data and voice recorders to France came a day after Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam revealed that the East African country does not have the necessary equipment to investigate the recovered voice and data recorders.

Gebremariam on Wednesday indicated that the voice and data recorders will be sent to a foreign country so as to undertake the investigation procedure.

On Monday, Ethiopian Airlines announced its decision to suspend commercial operations of all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed near Bishoftu town, about 45 km from the capital, Addis Ababa, just minutes after takeoff from Bole International Airport, killing all 157 people aboard.

A wave of countries, including notably the United States, have grounded Boeing 737 Max aircraft amid mounting safety concerns following the second crash of the same model in less than five months.