Following the end of the search for bodies , the search continued for the Airbus 's " black boxes " — the Cockpit Voice Recorder ( CVR ) and the Flight Data Recorder ( FDR ) . French Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses ( BEA ) chief Paul-Louis Arslanian said that he was not optimistic about finding them since they might have been under as much as of water , and the terrain under this portion of the ocean was very rugged . Investigators were hoping to find the aircraft 's lower aft section , since that was where the recorders were located . Although France had never recovered a flight recorder from such depths , there was precedent for such an operation : in 1988 , an independent contractor recovered the CVR of South African Airways Flight 295 from a depth of in a search area of between . The Air France flight recorders were fitted with water-activated acoustic underwater locator beacons or " pingers " , which should have remained active for at least 30 days , giving searchers that much time to locate the origin of the signals
South African Airways Flight 295
South African Airways Flight 295
Air France Flight 447