EgyptAir flight MS804 cockpit voice recorder recovered

Only a day after it had been announced that the deep search vessel John Lethbridge had found fuselage wreckage of EgyptAir’s flight MS804 in “several main locations”, investigators have confirmed that not only has the ‘black box’ cockpit voice recorder been recovered, but that despite extensive damage, the memory unit remained intact – “The vessel’s equipment was able to salvage the part [of the recorder] that contains the memory unit, which is considered the most important part of the recording device.” The recorder will now be transported to the port of Alexandria in Egypt for examination.
The cockpit voice recorder will enable investigators to hear anything spoken by the pilot and co-pilot, together with any alarms in the background. If the flight data recorder is also found, that should reveal what the plane’s computers were recording at the time of the crash. However, the location signals emitted from the flight data recorder are due to expire on June 24.
Flight MS804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board. To date, while a terrorist attack has not been ruled out, no terrorist group has claimed responsibility. Human or technical have not been ruled out either. Electronic messages sent by the plane have confirmed that smoke detectors were set off a few minutes before the radar signal was lost, and Greek investigators believe the plane turned 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right, dropping from 11,300m (37,000ft) to 4,600m (15,000ft) and then 3,000m (10,000ft) before it was lost from radar.
For the recovery of the aircraft, investigators will perform what is referred to as “the four corners”, a mapping of the location where every single piece of the aircraft ended up. If the debris is located over a wide area, that would indicate that the plane broke up in mid-air. If the debris is found in a more concentrated location and the plane’s fuselage is more intact, it would indicate that it broke up when it hit the water.