A nalysis of the cockpit voice recorder — which was recovered from the wreckage of the Airbus A320-232 aircraft that operated as EgyptAir flight 804 — revealed that pilots attempted to extinguish a fire aboard the airplane.
The cockpit voice recorder — also known as the “black box” — was recently found and repaired.
What Doomed EgyptAir Flight 804?
The aircraft departed from Paris at 11:09 in the evening local time on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 and was at an altitude of approximately 37,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea when it suddenly disappeared from radar on approach to its destination in Cairo at 2:33 in the morning Egypt Standard Time on Thursday, May 19, 2016.
None of the 56 passengers and ten members of the flight crew survived the crash; and no distress call was ever reported.
“Hello, Hello, EgyptAir 804 flight level 370, squawk number 7624,” were amongst the last words said by the pilot, according to a recording of the communications of the flight deck with the air traffic control tower. “Thank you so much. Good day, have a goodnight.”
Although no militant or terrorist group has officially claimed responsibility for the incident, investigators in Egypt are not ruling out any theories or possibilities — especially as it is rare for such a catastrophic fire to suddenly occur. The information from the cockpit voice recorder was consistent with data previously recovered from the wreckage of the aircraft — which was first found a few weeks ago in the middle of June of 2016 — and indicated that heat, fire, and smoke around a lavatory and the avionics area was the genesis of the chain of events which led to the ultimate demise of the airplane.
“Radar data showed the aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies before it turned 90 degrees left, then a full 360 degrees to the right as it plummeted from 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). It disappeared when it was at an altitude of about 10,000 feet (3,048 meters)”, according to this article written by Brian Rohan of the Associated Press. “Deep ocean search teams have been recovering human remains and bringing them to Egypt’s port city of Alexandria. French authorities opened a manslaughter inquiry late last month, but said there is no evidence so far to link the crash to terrorism.”
Summary
Hopefully, the investigators will find out more information pertaining to what exactly caused this incident to occur as soon as possible in order to give closure to family and friends of the 66 people who were aboard the ill-fated flight, as the actual cause of the fire is still not known at this time.
Graphic ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
