EgyptAir Flight MS804 Update: Recovered Human Remains To Be Sent For DNA Analysis

Human remains mapped at the crash site of EgyptAir Flight 804 have been recovered in the Mediterranean, the Egyptian Accident Investigation Committee said Sunday. John Lethbridge, an Egyptian-contracted vessel, recovered the remains and is sailing to Alexandria to hand over them to forensic officials and prosecutors for DNA analysis.

The vessel, a Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search, will head back to the crash site to carry out further scans for more remains. The number of deceased that can be identified by the remains is unknown.

Investigators retrieved two flight recorders, or black boxes, of Flight MS804 last month. One of the black boxes, a damaged cockpit recorder, has been sent to Paris for repair.

On Saturday, Egyptian investigators said they would be able to access the cockpit voice recordings of the flight despite damage to the recorder.

“None of the memory chips of the electronic board were damaged,” the investigators said in a statement, adding that only some connecting equipments required replacement.

“Test results were satisfactory as [they] enabled the reading of the recorders of the CVR [Cockpit Voice Recorder] memory unit,” the officials added.

The Airbus A320 disappeared from radar May 19 after entering Egyptian airspace. The plane with 66 people on board, headed to Cairo from Paris, veered left off course at about 37,000 feet and made a sharp right turn and completed a full circle, according to the investigators.

During initial investigation, radar data showed that the plane did not suffer a sudden midair explosion. However, electronic messages sent by the plane indicated some smoke alarms went off.

Last Wednesday, investigators said that the aircraft’s debris indicated that there was smoke in the bathroom and onboard equipment. According to them, the wreckage from the plane’s front section showed “signs of high temperature.”

“Analysis will be carried out to try and identify the source and reasons for those signs,” investigators had said in a statement at the time.