Cairo: One of the two black box flight recorders from the EgyptAir plane that plunged into the Mediterranean last month has been repaired, Egypt’s investigation commission said on Tuesday, raising hopes it could provide clues on why the aircraft went down.
The two black box recorders were found two weeks ago, but were too damaged to extract information on what caused the passenger jet to go down.
They were sent to France’s BEA air safety agency — which also extracted data from the black boxes of the ill-fated Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight that crashed in 2009 — to be repaired, where they arrived on Monday.
Investigators hope the recorders will reveal the cause of the May 19 crash of flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo, in which all 66 people on board were killed. A terror attack has not been ruled out.
The black box recorder “has been successfully repaired ... by the French accident investigation agency laboratory”, the commission said in a statement.
“Tests have been carried out ... and we can be sure the flight parameters were properly recorded,” the investigators said.
“Work to repair the second black box will commence tomorrow.”
French authorities meanwhile opened a manslaughter inquiry on Monday into the crash, saying there is no evidence so far to link it to terrorism.
Prosecutor’s office spokesman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said the inquiry was launched as an accident investigation, not a terrorism investigation. She said French authorities are “not at all” favouring the theory that the plane was downed deliberately, though the status of the inquiry could eventually change if evidence emerges to that effect.
Investigators decided to start the probe before waiting to analyse the plane’s flight data and voice recorders, based on evidence gathered so far, she said, without elaborating.
An Egyptian official at the ministry of civil aviation said Egyptian authorities haven’t been notified of the French prosecutor’s decision and that all scenarios remain on the table.
“There is no evidence that backs up or rules out any of the possible scenarios of what caused the crash, including whether it is a terrorist act or technical problems,” he said.
The Egyptian investigation committee is in charge of issuing a final report, but France can also investigate because the plane was manufactured by France-based Airbus and French citizens were among those killed.
The Airbus A320 was en route from Paris to Cairo when it crashed in the Mediterranean, with 40 Egyptians and 15 French nationals on board as well as two Iraqis, two Canadians and one each from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
France’s aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight control unit minutes before it disappeared.
Egyptian investigators confirmed the aircraft had made a 90-degree left turn followed by a 360-degree turn to the right before hitting the sea.
The repaired black boxes will be returned to Cairo for analysis in Egypt’s aviation ministry laboratories, the committee previously said.
French judges are also probing the May 19 crash. Prosecutors had previously opened a preliminary investigation — a normal procedure when French citizens are involved — and have handed their findings to judges for a “manslaughter” probe.
The crash follows the bombing of a Russian passenger over Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula last October, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
Daesh claimed responsibility for that attack, but there has been no such claim linked to the EgyptAir crash.
