PERPIGNAN (France) - ONE of the black boxes of an Air New Zealand Airbus A320 that crashed off the French coast has been recovered, an official said on Saturday.

Deputy prosecutor Dominique Alzeari told reporters that the flight data was being analysed and the results would be available within the next two days.

'The first results will be known within 48 hours, the conversations that took place in the flight's last minutes will give some indication as to the cause of the crash,' he added, stressing that it would be 'premature' to draw any conclusions now.

Mr Alzeari also said that divers had found the second flight recorder and hope to bring it to the surface for analysis Sunday.

French coastguards and around 50 police divers took part in the search for a second day on Saturday.

Investigators are also trying to recover debris from the plane, some of which has drifted off in the direction of the Spanish coastline, some 30 kilometres away from the crash site.

The plane went to France for tests and maintenance work before heading to Frankfurt in Germany from where it was scheduled to leave for New Zealand on Friday.

It crashed on Thursday with five New Zealanders and two German pilots.

Two bodies have been recovered so far.

Built in 2005, the aircraft had been leased to German charter firm XL Airways a year later.

The jet had been undergoing servicing at EAS Industries in Perpignan and had been flying circuits for 90 minutes before it crashed.

Deputy Prosecutor Alzeari said the bodies had been sent for DNA analysis and that autopsies would be carried 'at the start of the week'.

Prosecutors also confirmed that an inquest for 'involuntary homicide' would open Monday or Tuesday. -- AFP