French Investigators not Hopeful to Find Black Box of Missing Jet

The French accident investigation agency says it is not hopeful that the black box of the missing Air France airliner would be found.

Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France's accident investigation agency, told a news conference Wednesday that he is "not optimistic" that the flight recorder will be recovered under the water.

"We have a crash in the water, we need time to determine whether we have or not reached the recorders. Even in history, from time to time, recorders were found after the 30 days. But I'm not so optimistic. It's not only deep it's also very mountainous at that place of the ocean."

Intense investigations continue Wednesday after Air France Flight 447 crashed with 228 people on board into the Atlantic Ocean off the Brazilian coast Monday.

Arslanian said due the complexity of the situation, they even had no exact idea of where the crash occurred and where the debris are, two days after the tragedy.

He said there are no sign suggesting the plane had problems before takeoff from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

The investigation agency said an initial report into the crash is expected to come out by the end of June, though the investigation "will go as fast as possible."