I think the French investigator/spokeman was simply being realistic - no doubt the Press want to know
when recorders will be recovered, he's quite rightly emphasising it's an
if.
I'm watching some of this in the States at the moment and some of the conjecture is not being helped by the standard of live translating being used by the networks and others...e.g. translating "recorders" as "registers".... and yes, I do know translating is difficult
