The director of the French agency investigating the crash of Air France Flight 447 said Monday that investigators could take at least a year-and-a-half to reach a conclusion, AP reported.
BEA director Paul-Louis Arslanian said he still doesn't know exactly where the plane went down nor what caused the accident, three months after the Rio to Paris flight crashed into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people aboard.
Speaking before a gathering of aerospace journalists in Paris, Arslanian said the agency has not issued a recommendation to airlines over speed measuring equipment because he didn't have evidence to justify it.
European air safety regulators have told world airlines to replace hundreds of air speed sensors of the type fitted to the doomed Airbus A330 plane.
A series of automatic messages sent by the plane point to a malfunction of the external speed monitors, known as Pitot tubes, which some experts think may have iced over and given false speed readings to the Air France plane's computers as it ran into a turbulent thunderstorm.
"If I had thought it was important to make a recommendation, I would have done it," Arslanian said.
The plane crashed into the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1. The crash site is more than 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) off Brazil's northeastern coast.
Arslanian said around 1,000 parts of the plane have been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean - including a nearly intact tail, an engine cover, uninflated life jackets, seats and kitchen items.
The Brazilian authorities have yet to send detailed information on the results of the autopsies, although the BEA is working with general information obtained from French authorities, he said.
Arslanian says investigators are gearing up for a third phase of searching, over a wider area, which could cost tens of millions of euros and start before the end of the year. Airbus has offered to help fund the search.
A preliminary report into the crash said the plane hit the ocean intact and belly first at a high rate of speed. But without the flight recorders, investigators may never know fully what happened. Investigators have announced no signs of explosion or terrorism.
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