Story updated on June 28 to incorporate information on repaired FDR
French authorities have launched a manslaughter inquiry in connection with the May 19 crash of an Egyptair Airbus A320 into the Mediterranean Sea. However, confirming the move to the Associated Press on Monday, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office said no evidence exists yet to link the crash to terrorism. Judicial authorities in France as a matter of course often open criminal investigations into airliner crashes even before accident investigators have reported any suspicions of foul play.
Egyptian aviation authorities turned over both the flight data and voice recorders to the French aviation accident investigation bureau (BEA) after they failed in attempts to extract any information from the heavily damaged devices. The Egyptian civil aviation authority on Tuesday announced that BEA experts had repaired the FDR and that repairs to the CVR would begin on Wednesday. The BEA will then transfer the devices to Cairo for data analysis by Egyptian authorities.
Sixty-six passengers and crewmembers died in the crash some 180 miles off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. The airplane, en route to Cairo from Paris, turned roughly 90 degrees to the left, turned right and then circled 360 degrees clockwise before plummeting from its cruising altitude of 37,000 feet to 15,000 when controllers lost radar contact. Egyptian officials immediately cautioned against any speculation about terrorism as the possible cause, while Egyptair issued what amounted to an admonishment of “misleading” news accounts.
Egyptian aviation security practices have undergone scrutiny since a Metrojet A321 crashed soon after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh on its way to St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 31. Although British and U.S. authorities later concluded a bomb brought down the airplane, Egypt has yet to officially declare terrorism as the cause.