On Saturday, a Yemeni aviation committee overseeing the investigation said divers have recovered pieces of the fuselage of the Airbus 310 and that Yemeni, French and Comoran officials listened to the communication between the control tower and the flight before it went down, but gave no details.

After days of protests by Comorans in France against the airline, Yemenia ordered its flights to Comoros suspended. Protesters claim the aircraft are unsafe.

In France on Saturday, at least 10,000 people held a silent homage in the city of Marseille for the 152 victims of the crash. Marching behind a black banner, many of the protesters alleged that dangerous planes — or "flying garbage cans" — are used by the airline.

Sixty-one of the people who died in Tuesday's crash of the flight from Paris to Moroni were from Marseille, many of them Comorans.

Many in France's Comoran community are angry it took the accident to focus attention on what they claim are dangerous conditions on the flight path to the Indian Ocean island nation, unsafe planes, unhelpful crews and stopovers in Yemen's capital San'a that can last hours or days in stifling heat.

At a news conference in Moroni Saturday, Yemen's transport minister, Nabil al-Fakeh, said the crash was the airline's first accident and that people should wait for the investigation results before drawing conclusions.

"It is not fair to say that Yemenia is not taking care of safety," said al-Fakeh.