France says black boxes from crashed airliner will stay in Venezuela

Flight recorders from a plane that crashed killing 160 people will remain in Venezuela for analysis, French coroners will cooperate.

The French analysts will be from Franche's Accident Investigation Bureau, Dominique Perben told RTL radio.

"(The black boxes) will be analyzed in Venezuela but in the presence of and in collaboration with our technicians," Perben said. "We should very quickly determine the technical origin of the crash and then we will, I hope, go further and tell the families what happened. We owe them that."

Previously, Venezuela's government had said the flight data and cockpit voice recorders would be analyzed in France at a specialized lab.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 jet was carrying 152 passengers home to Martinique - a French overseas department in the Caribbean - when it crashed Tuesday in Venezuela. Eight Colombian crew members were also killed. It was traveling from Panama.

The Colombian government had halted West Caribbean Airways' operations while its civil air authority reviewed inspections that the small carrier had been required to perform, The AP reports.