Search teams have found the cockpit voice recorder from the Egyptair Airbus A320 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19 and retrieved its memory unit, Egyptian authorities announced Thursday. Although underwater cameras found the damaged CVR in several pieces, authorities consider the memory unit the most important part of the device.
Crews from the French vessel John Lethbridge on Wednesday found wreckage from the airplane and provided the first images from the sea floor to the Egyptian investigation committee in charge of the accident probe. According to a statement from Egypt’s Civil Aviation Authority, the searchers identified “several main locations” of the wreckage and investigators on board have begun drawing a map of the distribution of various pieces.
Initial debris found soon after the May 19 crash remain in possession of forensic experts “under supervision of the criminal prosecution,” said the Egyptian CAA.
The discoveries came came nearly two weeks after the French vessel La Place detected signals from the missing aircraft at a depth of nearly 10,000 feet. Experts expected both the cockpit voice and data recorders to stop emitting signals on June 24.
The Egyptian Aircraft Investigation Committee confirmed Monday that radar images of the Egyptair Airbus A320 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19 “swerved left and then turned right for a full circle” before its rapid descent, confirming reports from British and Greek authorities. While the Egyptian authorities concede that investigators cannot rely solely on the latest information to determine what caused the disaster, it does suggest that the airplane did not explode in midair.
ACARS data indicates the existence of smoke in the A320’s lavatory and avionics bay just as the pilots apparently lost control of the airplane. The series of messages, sent over a period of three minutes, also relayed window sensor indications and problems with the autopilot and flight control system.