AFP - Search teams detected a signal on Sunday from the black boxes of the Yemenia airliner that crashed off the Comoros last week with 153 people on board, investigators said.
   
"Investigators from the BEA have detected a signal from the flight recorders," said Comoran lead investigator Ali Abdou Mohamed in a statement received in Paris.
   
A spokeswoman from the French BEA accident investigation agency confirmed to AFP that a signal had been picked up.
   
The Yemenia Airways Airbus A310 went down Tuesday in the Indian Ocean as it was approaching for landing on the Comoro Islands.  A 12-year-old girl is the only survivor of the crash.
   
"The BEA confirms that a signal from the two boxes was detected this morning during underwater searches to locate the flight recorders of Flight IY 626," said a statement from the French agency.
   
Comoran investigators said the search to find the black boxes - which contain vital data on the flight's final minutes -- was continuing with French and Yemeni armed forces taking part.
   
Yemenia has suspended all flights to the Comoros following the crash and is facing strong criticism of its safety standards.
   

Flight plan of Yemeni Airbus A310-300 that crashed off the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on June 30 at around 1am Paris time

The ill-fated Yemenia flight left Paris via Marseille on June 29 aboard a modern Airbus A330 but passengers switched in Sanaa to the older A310 jet to continue to Djibouti and Moroni.
   
France had said a maintenance check in 2007 had revealed several problems and that the plane had not flown in French airspace since.
   
France's large Comoran community has held large protests over the crash, drawing 10,000 people onto the streets in Marseille on Saturday to demand an end to "flying coffins."
   
President Nicolas Sarkozy has named a former ambassador to Sudan to personally handle requests from grieving families while Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi has appealed for calm from members of the diaspora in France.