From
The Associated Press: French end search for Flight 447 black boxes
The French accident investigation agency, known as the BEA, said in a statement that the research ship leading the hunt for the plane's flight recorders had left the site, more than 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) off Brazil's northeastern coast. The ship, the Pourquoi Pas, was to arrive Thursday in Dakar, Senegal.
The statement said the second phase of search efforts, focusing on the underwater hunt for debris and the black boxes, "has finished." Investigators and experts will gather in the coming weeks to determine whether to launch a third phase.
"We have not found the wreckage, we have not found the recorders," said BEA spokeswoman Martine del Bono.
She said the BEA will gather a team of about 10 specialists from several countries including Brazil, France, the United States and Germany, to study the data gathered from the second phase and decide what a third search phase would cost and require.
She gave no estimate on when an eventual third mission might begin.
The investigation "is far from finished," she said. "We must find" the black boxes, she added.