Analysis of flight recorder data from the deadly Air India crash two weeks ago was underway in India after investigators successfully retrieved the information from the two black boxes on board.

The data from the recorders can be used to reconstruct the flight's final moments and determine the cause of the incident.

Investigators have downloaded flight recorder data from an Air India crash this month that killed 260 people, India's civil aviation ministry said on Thursday, a long-awaited step towards understanding the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.