Minister of Civil Aviation Sherif Fathi has issued a statement saying the committee investigating the EgyptAir flight MS804 crash should be in a position to announce preliminary findings, based on an analysis of the contents analysis of the plane's black boxes, “within weeks”. “Experts are now verifying information obtained from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and are working to establish a time correlation with information recovered from the Cabin Voice Recorder (CVR),” he said. On Sunday the investigation committee received debris possibly belonging to the crashed plane which was washed up on the Israeli coast. Israeli authorities discovered the pieces of plane wreckage on beaches north of Tel Aviv. The investigation committee is examining the debris to confirm whether it belonged to the EgyptAir Airbus A320. The plane crashed into the Mediterranean on 16 May, killing all 66 people on board, during a flight from Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport to Cairo. On Monday Al-Youm Al-Sabei published a story citing official sources saying initial analysis of the flight data recorder revealed smoke in the lavatory and avionics compartment. Recovered debris from the plane's front section also showed signs of fire damage, suggesting a blaze may have broken out on board. In May the daily Al-Ahram published a document from the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) which revealed the plane had transmitted “11 electronic messages” beginning at 2109 GMT on 18 May. The first two messages indicate the engines were functioning properly. A third message, sent at 0026 GMT on 19 May, four minutes before the plane vanished from radar, revealed a rise in the temperature of the cockpit's right-side window. The plane then continued to send automated messages for three more minutes before dropping off radar screens. On 5 July the investigation committee issued a statement saying it is too early to “jump to any conclusions about the crash” and asked the media to refrain from publishing information not released by the committee. On Sunday the government said it was intensifying the search for more plane debris and human remains in the Mediterranean. “In the context of the Egyptian government's keenness to recover all human remains from the crash site of the A320 it has been decided to extend the work of the John Lethbridge search vessel until 18 July,” the statement said. “Forensic doctors on board of the vessel supervise the transfer of the human remains to the department of forensic medicine in Cairo where standard identification procedures are undertaken,” added the statement.
