HON Honeywell International Inc

Searchers recovered the flight data recorder from EgyptAir Flight 804, Egyptian officials said on Friday, a day after the plane's cockpit voice recorder also was brought up from the Mediterranean Sea where the airplane crashed last month.

A specialized vessel, the John Lethbridge, belonging to Deep Ocean Search Ltd., was able to locate and recover the second "black box" early Friday, including the crucial memory unit where thousands of technical parameters of the plane are stored. The device is being taken to Alexandria where it will be handed to the Egyptian-led crash investigating team, Egyptian officials said in their latest update on the crash.

Once the flight data recorder is at a specialized facility where the information can be extracted, investigators could gather important information about what happened during the flight in a matter of days if not hours, safety experts said. Analyzing the data on the flight data recorder typically is more intricate than making assessments of what happened from the cockpit voice recorder.

The breakthrough means the crash investigation team has now recovered the most vital items to help determine why the Flight 804 crashed on May 19, killing all 66 people onboard. The plane was bound for Cairo from Paris when it deviated from its course while cruising at 37,000 feet, first turning left before rolling to the right and completing a full circle, investigators have said.

The Airbus Group SE A320 broadcast a number of fault messages before all contact was lost, indicating possible smoke in the nose of the plane, including a critical electronic-equipment hub beneath the cockpit. The messages alone haven't proved sufficient to determine a likely cause for the crash, investigators have said. Radar data also indicated there wasn't a sudden explosion that tore the plane apart midair.

Egyptian officials haven't ruled out any possible cause of the crash.

Investigators should be able to piece together what transpired from the two recovered recorders. Black box-maker Honeywell International Inc. has been asked by Egypt to provide technical assistance related to the probe.

Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 17, 2016 07:25 ET (11:25 GMT)

Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024