Submarine retrieves second black box from crash plane

A remote-controlled French mini submarine today retrieved the second black box, this one containing cockpit voice recordings, of an Egyptian charter plane that crashed killing all 148 people aboard, most of them French tourists, the head of the Egyptian investigating team said.

The discovery along with the recovery of the flight data recorder on Saturday, may provide vital clues as to what happened to the Flash Airlines Boeing 737.

Egyptian authorities have already ruled out terrorism – they blamed an unspecified technical problem for the crash minutes after take-off from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik on January 3.

“We have just retrieved it now from the water, from a depth of around 3,350ft,” said Shaker Qilada, head of the Egyptian investigation team.

“Because of the crash impact and because of resting at such a depth, the box is not in good condition. We hope it won’t affect the content of the box.” Qilada said.

The French navy, while scanning the sea bed, also has photographed the fuselage of the crashed Boeing 737 and search teams were trying to retrieve it, he said.

Egyptian investigators in Cairo have begun analysing the data on the flight data recorder pulled up by the French submarine Scorpio 2000, in cooperation with a French team and American observers.

No information on what it contains has been released.

The analysis of each black box’s recordings is expected to last several days.

The voice cockpit recorder was found on the seabed about 4,900ft from the flight data recorder, a second Egyptian investigator said on condition of anonymity.

Qilada said the voice recorder, like the flight data recorder, was chemically treated to clean the salt water, then was sent to Cairo for thorough examination.