PARIS, July 2 (UPI) — Officials have successfully repaired the EgyptAir Flight 804 cockpit voice recorder as investigators seek to determine what caused the jet to crash, killing all 66 on board on May 19.
French air accident investigators successfully fixed parts of the recorder and determined the memory was intact, Egyptian authorities said.
Investigators have been able to read the data but plan a more thorough investigation once the memory boards are returned to Cairo.
The voice recorder was sent from Cairo to Paris for repairs. Although the memory chips are intact, some were damaged and had to be replaced, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Data from the other black box, the flight data recorder, and wreckage recovered from the Mediterranean more than two weeks ago suggest a fire broke out in the Airbus Group SE jet.
The data show alerts that smoke was detected in one of the lavatories and in an electronics sections below the cockpit. This could have triggered a total power failure.
The plane, headed to Cairo, departed from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport shortly after 11 p.m. local time and disappeared from radar while flying at 37,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea.
No one has claimed responsibility for bringing the plane down and the pilot did not issue a distress call.
