FILE PHOTO: Men unload a case containing the black boxes from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 outside the headquarters of France's BEA air accident investigation agency in Le Bourget, north of Paris, France, March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo

PARIS (Reuters) - Investigators have begun studying the cockpit voice recorder of an Ethiopian Airways plane that crashed last week, a spokesman for France’s BEA air accident investigation agency said on Saturday.

Downloading the data was expected to take four to five hours, the spokesman said. The BEA also issued a photo showing the cockpit voice recorder dented but intact.

Once successfully recovered, the data should help provide answers to why the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft hurtled into the ground minutes after take off last Sunday from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people.