Egyptian accident investigatiors have confirmed that the word “fire” has been clearly identified in data from the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of EgyptAir flight 804 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in May.
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Automated electronic messages sent by the plane revealed that smoke detectors went off in a toilet and in the avionics area below the cockpit, minutes before the plane’s signal was lost.
“Still, it is too early to determine the reason or the place where that fire occurred”, the committee added in a statement.
All 66 people on board died when flight MS804, flying from Paris to Cairo, crashed on 19 May.
The data on the voice recorder had been downloaded earlier this month after it was repaired.
Officials had released images of the wreckage of the aircraft’s fuselage, including human remains and the personal belongings of passengers, along with some airline life jackets with EgyptAir prints and even seat belts that were found during the search operations.
The committee said that French vessel Lethbridge John, which was hired by the Egyptian government to locate and pick up debris and body remains, arrived on Saturday at Alexandria seaport after its mission is accomplished.
The Egyptian investigators leading the effort, they said, often appear reluctant to share details with Airbus and French crash experts partly due to fears that details prematurely may be disclosed or leak out to the media.
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The crash followed the bombing of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula last October, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
