EgyptAir Flight MS804 black box data suggests fire on board

“Preliminary information shows that the entire flight is recorded on the FDR”, Egypt’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said in a statement.

Black box data from the crash showed smoke alarms had sounded on board, while soot was found on the wreckage, an Egyptian-led investigative committee said on Wednesday.

The damaged flight data recorders were sent to Paris so that salt deposits could be removed before being sent back to a laboratory in Cairo for analysis earlier this week.

The Airbus 320 was travelling from Paris to Cairo on 19 May when it crashed.

The plane had sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board through SCARS.

Today’s information is consistent with data from the plane’s ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System), leaked to the Aviation Herald late last month.

Final repairs on the cockpit voice recorder are expected to wrap up as early as Tuesday; CNN reported citing the ministry as saying. There was no distress call from the aircraft and no group has ever claimed that it brought it down.

Crash investigators also say parts of the front section of the plane show signs of high temperatures and soot.

A search vessel contracted by the Egyptian government from Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search is still searching the Mediterranean for human remains.

Prosecutor’s office spokesman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said the inquiry was launched Monday as an accident investigation, not a terrorism investigation. Both devices were damaged by the crash impact and sea water, officials said.