PARIS, July 28. /Ivan Batyrev for ITAR-TASS/. The flight recorders of the Air Algerie passenger plane that crashed in Mali last week have been brought to France. This was confirmed by the national Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety that will engage in decoding the ‘black boxes’.

“At present, our experts are working on extracting the information from the flight recordings,” a Bureau representative said. So far, there are no additional reports on the contents of the ‘black boxes’.

The Bureau’s chief, Remi Jouty stated on Sunday that two flight recorders were severely damaged in the moment of the plane’s crash, and the possibility of decoding them raises doubts.

“As of the flight recorder that registers the parameters of the flight, its internal condition allows us supposing that it was damaged less, so there is hope that data will be extracted quite easily,” Jouty noted, “Another flight recorder is far more damaged, and it’s too early to say whether it can be decoded. There may be difficulties.”

McDonnell Douglas MD80 of Algeria-based Air Algerie en route from Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) to Algiers crashed overnight to July 24 in the north of Mali. One of the possible causes of the plane’s crash is bad weather in this African region. There were reports that shortly before the connection with the plane was lost, its commander asked permission to change the route amid the approaching hurricane.

There were 118 people on board, including 54 French citizens. All of them are reported dead. At present, the crash site is guarded by French and Mali military; European forensics are identifying the victims. Burkina Faso and Algeria announced national mourning. In France, the national flags on all state offices are flown at half-mast.