[Peetwo]

MS804 AAI - Problems with the CVR/FDR

Courtesy WSJ via the Oz:

EgyptAir Flight 804: crash teams struggle to crack black boxes

Update 29/06/16:

AP via the Oz:

French fix downed EgyptAir black box

• AP
  
• 12:00AM June 29, 2016
  

[url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/french-fix-downed-egyptair-black-box/news-story/b36fd21cce79f2b3cbc012a70400535a#comments][/url]
An EgyptAir Airbus A330-300 takes off for Cairo from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris in May.

French authorities opened a manslaughter inquiry yesterday into the May crash of an EgyptAir plane that killed 66 people, as one of the Airbus A320’s black boxes was repaired.

Prosecutor’s office spokesman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said the inquiry was launched into the downing of the Paris to Cairo flight as an accident investigation, not a terrorism investigation into the May 19 crash.

She said French authorities were “not at all” favouring the ­theory that MS804 was downed deliberately into the Mediterranean, though the status of the inquiry could eventually change if new evidence emerged.

Investigators decided to start the probe before waiting to analyse the Airbus A320’s flight data and voice recorders, based on evidence gathered so far, she said, without elaborating.

Egypt’s investigation commission said yesterday that one of the two black box flight ­recorders retrieved from the depths of the Mediterranean had been repaired, prompting hopes it could provide clues on why the aircraft went down.

The two black box recorders were found two weeks ago, but were too damaged to extract ­information on what caused the passenger jet to go down.

They were sent to France’s BEA air safety agency — which also extracted data from the black boxes of the ill-fated Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight that crashed in 2009 — to be ­repaired, where they arrived on Monday.

The flight data recorder “has been successfully repaired ... by the French accident investigation agency laboratory”, the commission said.

“Tests have been carried out ... and we can be sure the flight ­parameters were properly ­recorded. Work to ­repair the ­second black box will commence tomorrow.”
The second black box is the cockpit voice recorder.

An official at the ministry of civil aviation said Egyptian authorities haven’t been notified of the French prosecutor’s decision and that all scenarios remain on the table. “There is no evidence that backs up or rules out any of the possible scenarios of what caused the crash, including whether it is a terrorist act or technical problems,” he said.

The Egyptian investigation committee is in charge of issuing a final report, but France can also investigate because the plane was manufactured by France-based Airbus and French citizens were among those killed.

The reason for the crash ­remains unclear. The pilots made no distress call and no group has claimed to have brought down the aircraft.

The BEA has said the aircraft transmitted automated ­messages indicating smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight control unit minutes before it disappeared. Egyptian investigators ­confirmed the aircraft had made a 90-degree left turn ­followed by a 360-degree turn to the right ­before hitting the sea.

The crash followed the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last ­October, killing all 224 passengers and crew. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, but there has been no claim linked to the May 19 crash.
AP,

MTF...P2