Egyptair flight MS804 crash: black box confirms smoke on board

Data from the Flight Data Recorder recovered from EgyptAir Airbus A320 showed smoke alarms sounded on board, investigators say. The Airbus A320, which had 66 people aboard, crashed May 19 in the Mediterranean Sea on a flight from Paris to Cairo. 

Egyptian investigators announced that following the successful download of the data of the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) of the doomed A320, decoding and validation of more than 1200 parameters is in progress in order to commence the next phase of the investigation, that includes the reading and analysis of the data.

Preliminary information shows that the entire flight is recorded on the FDR since it departed from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, until the recording stopped at an altitude of 37,000 feet, when the accident occured.

“Recorded data is showing a consistency with ACARS messages of lavatory smoke and avionics smoke,” the committee said on Wednesday.

Investigators had previously announced that the plane’s automated Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, known as ACARS, sent signals indicating smoke alarms on board the plane before it went down.

“Recovered wreckage parts of the front section of the aircraft showed signs of high temperature damage and soot. Analysis will be carried out to try to identify the source and reason for those signs”, the committee statement added.

Regarding the CVR, repairs are still in progress at the French aircraft accident investigation bureau (Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la Sécurité de l’Aviation Civile).

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