Black box recorder indicates "fire" in EgyptAir crashed plane

The word "fire" was heard on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804, the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee reported Saturday after data analysis.

The report said the CVR's recording before the occurrence of the accident mentioned a "fire," but it is still too early to determine the reason or the place where that fire occurred.

EgyptAir Flight MS804, an Airbus A320, went missing from radar screens on May 19 en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board, including 30 Egyptians and 15 French.

The Egyptian military later announced personal belongings of victims and small pieces of the plane wreckage found in the Mediterranean Sea 290 km north of the coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt.

The committee said in Saturday's statement that it had studied a large number of data of the CVR and the flight data recorder (FDR) and synchronized between the two, noting the data analysis process still continues.

"Additional work on the CVR, the FDR and the recovered debris is continuing," the committee said.

The committee said that French vessel Lethbridge John, which was hired by the Egyptian government to locate and pick up debris and body remains, arrived Saturday at Alexandria seaport after its mission is accomplished.

The vessel managed in June to find and pick up the doomed flight's CVR and the FDR that were later taken for repairs in Pairs and then returned to Cairo.

Probe into the tragic fall of EgyptAir Flight MS804 still continues with all theories on the table, including a terrorist bomb and a severe technical failure, yet without a strong clue for any. Endit