Once the flight recorders are repaired they will be returned to Cairo for analysis, which, the committee estimates, could take several weeks.
The two black boxes were retrieved from the bottom of the Mediterranean on June 17, at a depth of some 9000 feet. Despite that they were heavily damaged, experts believe they can be repaired and provide critical information on the last minutes of the flight.
Initially, the Egyptian investigators attempted to copy data from the devices, removing the memory chips from the black boxes and drying them at the Egypt Armed Forces Technical Research Center. That process was unsuccessful.
Once the crash site is determined, Egyptian investigators state, French forensics experts will be brought in to help retrieve the bodies of passengers and crew. Currently, only a few body parts have been found.
The EgyptAir Airbus A320 passenger jet, en route from Paris to Cairo, disappeared from radar on May 19. Later, debris from the plane was found off the Greek island of Crete, in the Mediterranean. All 66 people on board are presumed dead. The search operation is ongoing.
