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| Data stack component from recovered flight data recorder |
UPDATE FRIDAY JULY 2016 Data retrieved from the damaged flight data recorder of ill-fated EgyptAir Flight MS804 has according to Egyptian sources confirmed there was a fire on board moments before the crash. The Egyptian experts still hang onto the idea that a technical fault is likelier than a terrorist attack.
However the majority of external experts point out that it would be in the Egyptians commercial interest to blame a technical fault rather than single out a terrorist attack.
Both the flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered from the Mediterranean Sea in mid-June following a detailed search operation. Both the 'black boxes', found 4,000m below the sea surface, were badly damaged.
Experts at French aviation accidents investigation bureau BEA managed to download the data from the damaged memory chips, but did not publicly release the content but submitted them to Egyptian authorities 'for further analysis.'
What is now known: the data obtained from the flight data recorder was consistent with messages from the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which transmits basic information in real time bursts to ground stations. Information for engineering use, basically a snag list of aircraft technical malfunctions or matters needing engineering support on arrival at a destination airport. Coverage is mainly land based and tails off over the oceans.
"Recorded data is showing consistency with ACARS messages of lavatory and avionics smoke," Egypt's Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said in a statement. "Preliminary information shows that the entire flight is recorded on the FDR since its take-off from Charles de Gaulle Paris airport until the recording stopped at an altitude of 37,000 feet where the 'accident' occurred."
Recovered wreckage from the jet's front section showed signs of high temperature damage and soot, the committee said.
The investigators will now perform more depth analysis of the wreckage as well as the flight data recorder information.
Crucially recordings from the cockpit voice recorder are still to be examined. Once decoded these recordings should reveal what was going on in the cockpit in the final minutes before the disaster and perhaps offer other many other audio clues, such as unusual noises from the plane’s engines.
The BEA is involved in the investigation as France is both the flight's point of origin and home to Airbus, the plane's manufacturer. Fifteen of those killed were French.
A United States National Transport Safety Board investigator is also involved, as the plane's engines were built by a consortium led by the US company Pratt & Whitney.
The Paris prosecutor's office opened a manslaughter investigation on Monday but said it was not looking into terrorism as a possible cause of the crash at this stage.
A search vessel contracted by the Egyptian government from Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search is still searching the Mediterranean for human remains.
The crash, which took place on 19 May, killed all 66 people aboard the Airbus A320 en route from Paris to Cairo. It has been already the third serious incident affecting Egyptian aviation in less than a year. In October, a Russian plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people on board. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked by a man wearing a fake suicide belt. No one was hurt.
Sources: CNS, E&T Mag, PA, Reuters
JULIAN BRAY +44(0)1733 345581 Aerospace & Incident Management Expert, Journalist & Broadcaster, Aviation Security & Airline Operations, Travel / Maritime & Cruise Industry, NUJ, EQUITY, LIVE ISDN LINK, Broadcast ISDN COOBE ++44 (0)1733 345020 e&oe Old faithful NOKIA: 07944 217476 www.aviationcomment.com
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