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THE WORD “FIRE” is heard on the cockpit voice recorder of EgyptAir 804 before the plane crashed into the Mediterranean in May, an Egyptian-led investigative committee said today.
Investigators had earlier said the other black box retrieved from the crash site, the data recorder, confirmed that smoke alarms had sounded on board, while soot on wreckage indicates a fire.
“The committee had… started listening to the cockpit voice recordings before the occurrence of the accident; where the existence of ‘fire’ was mentioned,” it said in a statement.
Still it is too early to determine the reason or the place where that fire started.
The data on the voice recorder had been downloaded earlier this month after it was repaired.
The plane was carrying 40 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, two Canadians and one passenger each from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
The committee statement said the search for the remains of the passengers has ended.
The ship conducting the search “reached the port of Alexandria today after the end of its mission, which had been extended for the second time, after making sure of the recovery of all human remains at the site of the accident”, it said.
Investigations
Both Egyptian and French judiciary have opened investigations into the mysterious incident, without ruling out a terrorist attack.
The crash followed the bombing of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula last October, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for that attack, but there has been no such claim linked to the EgyptAir crash.
Egypt’s aviation minister had initially said an attack was the more likely explanation, but President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said there was no theory being favoured yet.
EgyptAir said last week that advance compensation payments of $25,000 will be offered to families of the 66 people killed in the crash.
The payments are separate to those expected from insurance companies on behalf of various parties depending on the investigation into the disaster.
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There was never anything to indicate this was terrorism related. Unfortunately the media will look for a terrorism link if someone falls off their bicycle. Smoke alerts in the avionics bay and lavatory, and no decompression alerts all indicate a fire, not a blast.
So ISIS never claimed this disaster….
Peter
What are you trying to say? IS never claimed responsibility although a lot of thejournal posters did say it
Nick..i was trying to emphasise the perfidy of ISIS and their claims of responsibility….to wit….yesterdays speculation around the truck atrocity.
Accident or not, I’m glad I’m only going to Wexford for my holidays this year. This shiite is is happening way too much.
just don’t end up in the stores, or you’ll wish you were on the plane
2016. We can communicate with a satellite orbiting Saturn and a robot on Mars. Yet, after weeks of deep sea searching with all the all the associated costs and agony of uncertainty for families, we can determine that the word ‘fire’ was heard on the flight recorder. Surely there must be more investment made in facilitating live transmissions of cockpit data.
I bet Israel were pretty p**sed off with the telemetry report rfelease. Big slip up there and no ISIS to blame!
Fckin yawn fest. Planes sometimes crash on their own behalf.
have your say