On May 22nd 2017 Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority released following statement indicating the investigation currently is in the hands of Egypt's Public Prosecutor:
After the repair of the electronic boards of the aircraft recorders and conducting several intensive tests; the result came as positive as it showed the possibility of reading the recordings of the two memory units.
The members of the Technical Investigation Committee returned to Cairo with the boards to continue work and reading the contents of the recorders as well as analyzing them at the laboratories of the Ministry of Civil Aviation of Egypt. After the FDR data were uploaded and examined by the experts; the results indicated that the flight data had been recorded since the departure of the plane from Charles de Gaulle Airport until it stopped at 37000 thousand feet where the accident occurred. The recorded data of the recorder matched the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) messages which indicated smoke in the lavatory and smoke from the avionics compartment. When the CVR data was unloaded, conversation at the cabin prior to the accident at was heard, which mentioned the word fire.
Consequently the Technical Investigation Committee made a chronological linkage between the data extracted from FDR and the voices recorded on CVR.
In the meantime; John Lethbridge recovered all the human remains that were spotted at the crash location; in the presence of Egyptian and French forensic experts on board. As the Egyptian government was keen to ensure that all human remains are recovered and that it stands in solidarity with the families of the victims, it was decided to extend the mission of John Lethbridge for two additional periods, to conduct a new scan of the seabed and to search for any other remains until it is fully ascertained that there are no human remains at the crash scene.
The human remains of the victims were handed to the Public Prosecutors and to accredited representatives of the Egyptian forensic medicine institution; in the presence of members of the Technical Investigation Committee and the Egyptian and French forensic doctors. Immediately the human remains were transferred to the Egyptian forensic medicine institution in Cairo in order to carry out the standard measures.
In September 2016; the Central Department for Aircraft Accident Investigation at the Ministry of Civil Aviation received reports of the forensic Medicine of the Arab Republic of Egypt; concerning the bodies of the victims; which indicated finding traces of explosive materials in some human remains. Reference to Article No. (108) of the Civil Aviation Law No. 28 for the year 1981, and its amendments; which provides that in case the Technical Investigation Committee suspects the existence of any criminal act behind the accident, it shall inform the public prosecution and therefore the Technical Investigation Committee had referred the matter to the public Prosecution; while availing its expertise under the disposal of the public prosecution. Noteworthy; investigation is still in progress by the Egyptian public prosecution.
Quelle: AviaitionHerald