French prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into manslaughter and have given their findings to judges for approval to launch a full probe.
Advertisement
The plane’s Flight Data Recorder was repaired in laboratories belonging to France’s BEA aircraft accident investigation agency late on Monday and the data files transferred to Egypt on Tuesday, Egyptian investigators said.
But the plane is believed to have crashed in the deepest part of the Mediterranean and the black boxes, which were recovered last week, were found badly damaged.
French investigators have repaired the flight-data recorder of the EgyptAir Airbus A320 which crashed in the Mediterranean Sea in May.
Egyptian investigators have been trying for days to fix the memory chips, which would allow them to begin transcribing and analysing the recordings and data in pursuit of insight into what caused the crash.
“Tests have been carried out…and we can be sure the flight parameters were properly recorded”, it continued. The plane suddenly vanished from the radar as it soared over the Mediterranean from Paris to Cairo on May 19.
The black boxes will be returned to Egypt once they are fixed for analysis.
The data on the two black boxes, if it can be fully extracted, will be crucial to determining the cause of the crash 290 kilometres north of the Egyptian coast, in which all 66 passengers and crew were killed. Investigators hope the recorders will reveal the cause of the crash.
Because they were damaged, Egyptian investigators could not access their contents.
Advertisement
Their counterparts in Egypt confirmed the aircraft had made a 90-degree left turn followed by a 360-degree turn to the right before hitting the sea.
