Investigators say they can’t download anything from EgyptAir black boxes

INVESTIGATORS say they can’t download anything from the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean last month.

INITIAL attempts to download information from the flight data and voice recorders of an EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean last month have failed.

Key parts of the recorders are being sent to France for repairs, according to Egyptian and US officials.

The “electronic boards” of the recorders are being flown next week to the offices of the French aviation accident investigation bureau near Paris, authorities said.

After the boards are repaired and salt removed, they will be sent back to Cairo for data analysis, Egypt’s Investigation committee said in a statement late Thursday.

Handout pictures taken at an undisclosed location in Egypt and released on June 17 show the flight recorder (left) and one of two black boxes (right) from EgyptAir flight MS804. Picture: AFP

The recorders, also known as black boxes, were extensively damaged when EgyptAir Flight 804 travelling from Paris to Cairo plunged into the sea on May 19, killing all 66 people on board.

French and US investigators have overseen the effort to extract information from the recorders. The recorders were made by Honeywell, a US company. The plane, an A320, is made by Airbus, which is based in France.

The black box memory units typically provide investigators with critical data, including the pilots’ conversations, details about how the plane’s engines, navigation systems, and autopilot were working, and even information about smoke alarms.

Investigators have recovered debris they believe was from the doomed flight but are no clearer on what caused the plane to crash. Picture: AFP

The pilots made no distress call before the crash, and no group has claimed to have brought down the aircraft.

Radar data showed the aircraft had made violent moves after cruising normally in clear skies, plummeting from 11,582m to 4,572m. It disappeared when it was at an altitude of about 3,048m.

Leaked flight data indicated a sensor had detected smoke in a lavatory and a fault in two of the plane’s cockpit windows in the final moments of the flight.

Egypt’s civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, has said that terrorism is a more probable cause than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event.