Your trusted source

French investigators say usable data has been extracted from the cockpit voice recorder of Germanwings 4U 9525 but it has so far yielded no clues as to the cause of the plane's crash, the BBC reported.

They said the plane hit the ground in the French Alps at great velocity, suggesting no explosion in flight.

Flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed after an eight-minute rapid descent on Tuesday.

The French, German and Spanish leaders visited the crash site on Wednesday.

Remi Jouty, the director of the French aviation investigative agency, said there were sounds and voices on the cockpit voice recorder but that it was too early to draw any conclusions.

He said he hoped investigators would have the "first rough ideas in a matter of days" but that the full analysis could take weeks or even months.

But the New York Times quoted an unnamed investigator as saying that one of the pilots had left the cockpit and had been unable to get back in.

"You can hear he is trying to smash the door down," the investigator adds, describing audio from the recorder.

There had been earlier reports that the second black box - the flight data recorder - had been found. But Mr Jouty said this was not the case.