Black boxes recovered from Mali plane crash

French President Francois Hollande says the two black boxes have been recovered from the crash site of Air Algerie Flight 5017.

The plane went down in a restive area of Mali, where extremists roam.

All 118 people aboard were killed.

Nearly half of the victims were French.

President Hollande said an investigation and body-recovering are underway after he met with families of the victims in Paris.

"We found the two black boxes. They will be examined as quickly as possible. As much as is possible, we will be able to update our information about what happened in the plane. I have decided that the teams currently on site need to have the necessary time in order to regroup and identify bodies, and when it will be possible, all the bodies will be brought back to France."

Hollande has ordered all French flags fly at half-mast for three days starting on Monday.

French authorities said the catastrophe was probably the result of extreme bad weather, but they refused to exclude other possibilities without a full investigation.