MOSCOW, November 4. /TASS/. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Russian A321 plane that came down in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday has been seriously damaged while the data from the flight data recorder have been copied and handed to the commission investigating the crash, the Interstate Aviation Committee said on Wednesday.
"The cockpit voice recorder has suffered serious mechanical damage," the committee said. "Now in Egypt, the preparatory work with participation of experts of the IAC and France’s BEA [the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for civil aviation safety] is being done to copy the recorded information, taking all possible precautionary measures."
"The data of the flight data recorder (FDR) have been copied and handed to the investigating commission for deciphering, processing and analysing," IAC said.
The IAC official representative and experts continue work at the scene.
"In line with provisions of Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Convention known as the Chicago Convention, IAC specialists in close cooperation with Egyptian specialists and representatives of France, Germany and Ireland are taking part in all aspects of the investigation, including searches for and identification of the aircraft fragments and copying of the information from flight recorders," the IAC said adding this work was conducted along with the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s officers.
Simultaneously, the IAC staff members in Moscow have begun scrutinising the flight, medical and technical documentation.
"Professional training of the crew is being analysed as well as flight readiness, history of the plane operation and rules of its technical maintenance and repair works," it said.
Egypt’s aviation authorities are the only source of official information as the country heading the investigation, according to Annex 13, the IAC said.
"Other states, organisations and specialists that are looking into the crash have no right to disclose the information related to the probe without the consent of the state in charge of it," the committee said. Assuring that "within the framework of international law, the IAC will make all possible efforts to render full information to the public."
Russian A321 plane crash in Egypt
On October 31, Kogalymavia airline’s Flight 9268 carrying Russian tourists home from the resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh crashed about 30 minutes after take-off. The wreckage of the Airbus A321 plane was spotted in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, some 100 kilometres south of the city of El-Arish.
There were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board, no-one survived. Most of them were Russian nationals. Also, four Ukrainians and one Belarusian were on board.