CAIRO, June 19 (Aswat Masriya) – The memory units of the two black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that fell into the Mediterranean have been dried up and electricity tests are currently being undertaken to empty their contents, the investigative committee said on Sunday.  

The committee had announced last Friday that the two black boxes have been found and transferred to the Egyptian ministry of aviation, adding that they were “extremely damaged” and that they need “great time and effort” to be repaired.

On Saturday French experts began investigating the recorded cabin conversations and the flight data, the committee added in its Sunday statement.

Sources in the committee also stated that the committee is currently studying whether the black boxes should be repaired in Egypt or abroad.

The black boxes are designed to sustain damage during an accident and both typically, are vital for concluding the cause of a crash.

The EgyptAir flight which was carrying 66 people on board crashed on May 19 en route from Paris to Cairo.

The flight lost contact with radar as it was crossing the Mediterranean about 280 km from the Egyptian seacoast at 02:30 am Cairo local time, about 45 minutes before its scheduled arrival at Cairo airport.

Following the crash, France sent out a search vessel Laplace which has equipment from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, enabling it to pick up pinger signals of the black boxes.

Egypt also contracted with Deep Ocean Search, specializing in marine wreckage searches, to help in the search and retrieval of the boxes.