Crashed EgyptAir Flight Blackbox Retrieved From Wreckage

Will investigators finally be able to crack why the EgyptAir flight crashed on 19 May, killing all 66 on board?

The Cairo-bound flight crashed into the Mediterranean Sea near Greece. (Photo: AP)

In a breakthrough for investigators, the cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir flight MS804 has been retrieved by search teams.

The vessel’s equipment was able to salvage the part that contains the memory unit, which is considered the most important part of the recording device.

Investigation Committee of Egypt

Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered the recovered device to be handed over to Egyptian air accident investigators for analysis.

The John Lethbridge, a search boat contracted by the Egyptian government, was working against the clock to locate the “black boxes” that investigators say will help explain why Flight MS804 crashed on 19 May, killing all 66 people on board.

Signals from the flight data recorders needed to track them down on the seabed were expected to expire on 24 June.

Wreckage from the Egyptair flight that crashed on 19 May 2016. (Photo: AP)

The John Lethbridge has provided the first images of the wreckage to investigators. A search team on board, along with investigators, will now draw a map of the wreckage’s distribution spots, the committee said in a statement.

The recorders, one for voice and another for data, are usually located in the aircraft’s tail.

To recover the black boxes some 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) below the sea’s surface, investigators had to pinpoint the signals to within a few metres and establish whether the pingers are still connected to the recorders.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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