EgyptAir flight MS804 black boxes to be sent to France for repair

The memory chips from the black boxes of the ill-fated EgyptAir aircraft that crashed last month in the Mediterranean are to be taken to France next week for repairs.

In a statement released by the Egyptian investigation committee on Thursday, France’s BEA accident investigators will help remove salt deposits from the chips before returning the boxes to Egypt, to establish the exact cause of the crash.

For days now, the investigators have been attempting to repair the memory chips but according to them, the devices had sustained too much damage to be fixed and analyzed in Egypt.

Black boxes from crashed EgyptAir flight will go to France for repair https://t.co/CTPnIjwu5r

— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) June 23, 2016

All 66 people aboard the airbus A320 travelling from Paris to Cairo, perished in the crash and authorities have not ruled out any cause of the crash including that of terrorism. Egyptian officials have also said that French experts will join the forensics team to help recover human remains as a specialist ship attempts to map the wreckage.

Analysis of the black boxes will help investigators piece together what happened in the final half hour of the flight.