The black box belonging to the crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 reportedly indicates that there were attempts to put out a fire on the aircraft before its crash, officials in the investigation committee told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Aviation did not deny or confirm the reported results. However, they stated that those statements are unofficial and should not be taken as an official result at this time.
The ministry said in an official statement: “The data needs time to be verified and analysed. The experts of the committee are expected to verify the flight recorder data with the timeline of the events and the records from the cockpit.”
Nevertheless, these unofficial results are consistent with earlier official statements on initial black box investigation results. On 29 June, authorities investigating the crash said data from one of the black boxes confirms that smoke was detected on board the plane before it went down.
Last week, the aeroplane’s two black boxes were sent to France for repairs after sustaining heavy damage in the crash. They were then returned to Cairo for data analysis.
EgyptAir flight MS804 was flying from Paris to Cairo on 19 May when it crashed in the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 66 people on board. Following the recovery of some of the human remains, officials said there was likely a blast on board the plane.
