EgyptAir Flight 804’s cockpit voice recorder indicates there was an attempt to put out a fire on the plane before it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, a senior source from the airline told CNN Tuesday.
The source confirmed the recordings from the cockpit voice recorder are in line with data extracted from other devices recovered from the wreckage, which have indicated the presence of smoke in the plane’s avionics system and lavatory.
The cockpit voice recorder captures sounds from the flight deck, including flight crew conversation, alarms and background noise that can help investigators understand what the flight crew was doing.
But authorities haven’t revealed details about what can be heard in the recording. French investigators were working to repair the voice recorder’s damaged memory chip.
The plane crashed May 19 with 56 passengers and 10 crew members aboard.
Last week Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said the plane’s flight data recorder indicated possible lavatory and avionics smoke. Additionally, wreckage from the Airbus A320’s front section showed “signs of high temperature damage and soot,” the ministry said.
The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, a data link for sending messages between planes and ground facilities, had also indicated there were smoke alerts near the plane’s cockpit minutes before it crashed.
Developing story – more to come