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Voice recorder indicates fire on downed EgyptAir flight

July 5, 2016

The cockpit voice recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 indicates there had been an attempt to put out a fire on board. The plane crashed into the Mediterranean in May en route from Paris to Cairo, killing 66 people.

https://p.dw.com/p/1JJWR
EgyptAir MS804 Wrackteil
Image: picture-alliance/abaca

The recordings appear to confirm data from the plane's other devices, indicating there was smoke in the plane's lavatory and avionics system, sources on the investigation committee said on Tuesday.

Data downloaded from the flight data recorder - one of two black boxes on the plane - suggested smoke aboard the Airbus A-320 shortly before its crash on May 19, the committee said last week.

The aircraft went down into the Mediterranean Sea while en route from Paris to Cairo. Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said that a terrorist act appeared a more likely cause than mechanical failure. No distress call was received.

Videostill Ägypten Shiff sucht Egyptair-Flugzeug
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Egyptian Armed Forces

A search ship retrieved all the human remains mapped at the crash site of the Egyptair passenger plane that crashed in May, investigators said on Sunday.

The vessel, John Lethbridge, reportedly left the crash location for the port of Alexandria in Egypt to deliver the remains to prosecutors and forensic doctors, where they will be transported to the forensic department in Cairo to start DNA tests, the Egypt-led investigation committee said in a statement.

The vessel will also return to site to conduct a new scan of the seabed to search for other possible remains, according to a statement.

EgyptAir plane wreckage found

jbh/kms (dpa, Reuters)