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Black box recovered from wreckage of EgyptAir plane crash

The vessel “John Lethbridge” that is affiliated to the company Deep Ocean Search (DOS) found the cockpit voice recorder of the Airbus A320, according to a statement by the Egyptian committee that investigated the crash of plane.

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Flight MS804 was carrying 66 people on board to Cairo from Paris when it disappeared May 19.

A submersible robot from The John Lethbridge, a deep-sea search vessel, found the recorder, which contains an audio record of the pilots’ conversation and other sounds in the cockpit.

The investigation committee said Monday the black boxes were expected to stop emitting signals around June 24.

USA crash investigators say it can take days to produce a transcript from a voice recorder because investigators want to ensure accuracy and listen for every clue possible.

Last month, Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said that terrorist action appeared a more likely cause than a mechanical failure.

Investigators have said it is too soon to determine what caused the disaster although a terror attack has not been ruled out. Greek officials have said that the plane made a 90-degrees left turn and then made a complete 360-degree right-hand circuit as it descended.

Although the signals from the black box were picked up two weeks ago, it was discovered that the box was buried beneath 13,000 feet of water and could not be immediately retrieved. While the Egyptian authorities concede that investigators can not rely exclusively on the latest information to determine what caused the disaster, it does suggest that the airplane did not explode in midair.

The flight-data recorder collects more than 1,000 streams of information about how the aircraft is functioning, such as how the engines are running and positions of wings flaps. A local affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft just hours after the crash.

The search team identified a number of key locations where debris has been detected and has sent images to investigators.

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The crash comes after the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula last October that killed all 224 people on board.

Egypt says it has found plane wreckage