Searchers have recovered the flight data recorder from EgyptAir Flight 804, Egypt's Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Committee said Friday, potentially a key step in helping unravel the mystery of what caused the plane to plunge into the Mediterranean Sea almost a month ago.
The Airbus A320 crashed into the Mediterranean early on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo.
"The analysis might take weeks", depending on the condition of the recorders' memory units, the committee said.
The findings are an important breakthrough in helping the Egyptian investigation committee determine the cause of the crash and if the flight broke apart mid-air or if it stayed intact till it hit water, reports said. The two so-called "black boxes" were tucked into the plane's tail.
Like the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder was damaged, but searchers were able to recover the crucial memory unit from the device, the committee said.
A handout picture provided on June 16, 2016, by Deep Ocean Search Ltd (DOS) shows the John Lethbridge research vessel moored in the port of Alexandria on June 9, 2016, after it arrived in Egypt to begin searching the Mediterranean for the wreck of the EgyptAir Airbus A320 that crashed on May 19. Search crews had earlier found small floating pieces of debris and some human remains.
Sources at the Egypt-led investigative committee said the results will not be announced to the media before the investigative authorities, including the prosecution, are informed. On Thursday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board also said it is sending an investigator and a recorder specialist to Cairo. Investigators also hope the black boxes will offer clues as to why there was no distress call.
Shortly before it vanished, the aircraft had been cruising normally at 38,000 feet when it turned 90 degrees to the left.
Egypt's civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, has said terrorism is a more probable cause than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event.
The crash came nearly six months after a Russian passenger jet broke up midair shortly after take-off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. But the plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which sends maintenance notes to Airbus, mentioned cockpit windows, "lavatory smoke" and "avionics smoke" in the final three minutes of messages.