Search teams have recovered one of the two "black boxes" of the ill-fated China Airlines Boeing 747-200 that crashed into the sea and killed 225 people last month, local television report said on Tuesday.
The device -- also called a black box -- was found early Tuesday in waters deeper than 60 meters (200 feet) near the Penghu island chain, off Taiwan's western coast, TVBS cable news quoted investigators as saying.
The voice data recorder might provide important clues to why the Boeing 747-200 crashed 20 minutes into a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong on May 25. Radar showed that the plane broke into four pieces high over the Taiwan Strait.
Search teams have yet to find the second black box, called the flight data recorder. Strong currents and low underwater visibility have frustrated efforts to recover the device.
Investigators have said that the flight data recorder was emitting a weak beacon signal. The devices usually stop sending out signals after about 30 days.
( June 18, 2002)
