British experts have made a transcript of the cockpit conversations between the captain and his co-pilot of Flight CI642 and sent it to accident investigators in Hong Kong. But information on the plane's data recorder is still being analysed.

The flight recorder, commonly known as the black box, was sent to Britain because the equipment needed to replay the tapes was not available in the SAR. A spokesman at Britain's Air Accident Investigation Branch said its experts were prepared to provide further assistance.

'Basically there are two black boxes on an aircraft. The data recorder records all the information from the instruments on the aircraft and the voice recorder records all the conversations and other sounds you get on the flight deck,' the spokesman said.