Data from Egyptair flight recorder suggests smoke on board

 The Egypt-led investigation committee said that the initial information extracted from one of the two black boxes of the Egyptair jet that crashed into the Mediterranean last month suggests there was smoke in its toilet area.

It said on Thursday in Cairo that the data had been successfully downloaded from the plane’s flight data recorder.

“The recorded data on the device is consistent with messages of the plane’s ACARS system that indicate smoke in its toilet and avionics room.

The investigators added that the wreckage retrieved from the front part of the jet pointed to damage caused by high heat and intense smoke.

“A comprehensive analysis will be conducted to determine the source and causes of these indications.

The committee said that the preliminary information also showed that data from the entire flight had been recorded starting from its Paris departure until its crash in the Mediterranean Sea on May 19.

It said the second of the plane’s two black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder is still in France for repair.

It said the data on the two black boxes would be crucial to determining the cause of the crash 290 kilometers north of the Egyptian coast, in which all 66 people on board were killed.

Greek and Egyptian radar records showed that the plane veered sharply to the left and then spun around to the right in the last minutes before crashing.

No distress call was received.

The crash came almost six months after a Russian passenger jet broke up in midair shortly after take-off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.