All news

A321 black boxes to be decoded in Egypt or in France — aviation authority

Participants in the probe include France and Germany as the producing countries, and Ireland as the country where the plane was registered

MOSCOW, November 2./TASS/. If the Egyptian authorities faced some difficulties with decoding the black boxes from the Airbus A321 that crashed in Sinai on Saturday, flight data recorders could be sent to France, the head of Russia’s Federal Transport Agency Alexander Neradko told Rossiya 24 on Monday.

"It is expected that information from black boxes will be retrieved here, in Cairo. For this, representatives from the flight department of Kogalymavia carrier, who can help identify the voices of the crew, have already arrived in Cairo," he said.

Work to decode the flight recorders will begin only when all participants in the investigation get together at the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation," he added, saying other participants in the probe were France and Germany as the producing countries, and Ireland as the country where the plane was registered.

"As soon as all these specialists arrive in Caro, work to retrieve information from the flight data recorders will begin," he continued. "Investigation into the international accident proceeds in line with international rulers," Neradko reminded the viewers.

"The investigation commission is a commission of the Egyptian authorities: the state where the accident occurred," he said, adding that this is why the Egyptian aviation authorities were planning to decode the black boxes in Egypt. "They have necessary equipment for this," Neradko said.

"If they feel uncertain about something, if small damage to a protection cover of the cockpit voice recorder generate additional doubts as to the quality of decoding, they intend to do this job in France," he added.

Kogalymavia Flight 9268 came down about half-an-hour after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The disaster site is 100 kilometres south of the administrative centre of North Sinai Governorate, the city of Al-Arish. All 224 aboard the plane perished.