Flight recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight is repaired

Egyptian investigators have announced the flight data recorders from the crashed EgyptAir Flight MS804 have been successfully repaired.

The voice and flight data recorders, known as black boxes, arrived in Paris from Cairo on Monday so that salt deposits could be removed.

The two black boxes will be sent back to Cairo for data retrieval once repaired.

The chips should allow investigators to begin transcribing and analysing the recordings and data which may hold key insights into what caused the crash.

The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a manslaughter inquiry into the May crash of an EgyptAir plane that killed 66 people, saying there is no evidence so far to link it to terrorism.

With little debris and no bodies recovered, investigators hope analysis of the black boxes will help them piece together what happened in the final half hour of the flight.

It comes as damaged memory chips from the plane’s black boxes were flown to France for repairs, a source on the investigation committee said.

“The BEA’s mission is to make the memory cards legible because they are now extremely damaged”, said a spokesman for the Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA). 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.

Prosecutor’s office spokesman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre told the Associated Press news agency the inquiry was launched as an accident investigation. French aviation experts say the plane sent automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and trouble with a flight control unit shortly before disappearing from radar.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack, but there has been no such claim linked to the EgyptAir crash.