Ill-fated EgyptAir flight’s second black box discovered

By Hussein Mahmoud and Mahmoud al-Husseini

CAIRO (AA) – The second of two flight-data recorders -- or "black boxes" -- from EgyptAir flight MS804, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19 with 66 people aboard, has been found, investigators said Friday.

The discovery comes only one day after investigators announced that the first black box had been recovered.

In a statement, an Egyptian fact-finding commission said that a French naval vessel taking part in the search had "recovered the plane's second flight-data recorder".

The commission noted that the vessel had succeeded in recovering the black box’s memory unit, which it described as "the most important part of the data recorder".

The two recovered black boxes, the commission explained, would now be referred to a technical investigation committee, which, it said, would "upload the data contained therein for examination".

Earlier this week, the fact-finding commission announced that the wreckage of the doomed plane had been found.

On May 19, EgyptAir flight MS804 -- en route to Cairo from Paris -- disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea shortly after entering Egyptian airspace.

The ill-fated aircraft had been carrying 30 Egyptians and 15 French nationals, along with 21 others of various nationalities.

Both the French and Egyptian authorities have since launched investigations to determine the cause of the crash, which remains unknown until now.

* Ali Abo Rezeg contributed to this report from Ankara