If the memory units are sent abroad, it will be for a 24-hour period
and under Egyptian supervision, Fathy told reporters at a contract
signing with an airport security company.
Egypt will decide on Tuesday if EgyptAir black boxes should be sent abroad for repairs
Egyptian investigators will decide later on Tuesday whether the memory units of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804's black box recorders will need to be sent abroad or could be repaired locally, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said.
If
the memory units are sent abroad, it will be for a 24-hour period and
under Egyptian supervision, Fathy told reporters at a contract signing
with an airport security company.
"The experts
on the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee will
determine today if the black box memory units need to be sent abroad, in
which case it will be for 24 hours under Egyptian supervision," the minister said.
Egypt
would decide which country to send the memory units to, he added.
Egyptian investigators are being assisted by counterparts from France's
BEA air accident agency and the United State's National Transportation Safety Board.
The
Airbus A320 crashed on May 19 on its way to Cairo from Paris, killing
all 66 people abroad. France is taking part in the investigation as the
plane's point of origin and as the country of manufacture. The plane's
engine was U.S.-made.
"We will not treat the
plane's case in a political manner and the results of the investigation
will be announced with the utmost transparency," Fathy said.
The
crash was the third blow since October to Egypt's travel industry,
which is still suffering from the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
A Russian plane
went down in the Sinai Peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on
board in an attack claimed by Islamic State. In March, an EgyptAir plane
was hijacked by a man wearing a fake suicide belt. No one was hurt.
Tags
World