The cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir flight MS804 has been retrieved by search teams in a breakthrough for investigators seeking to explain what caused the plane to crash into the sea killing all 66 people on board.

The Airbus A320 plunged into the Mediterranean early on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo.

Since then, search teams have worked against the clock to recover the two black box recorders crucial to explaining what went wrong, before they stop emitting signals in about a week.

Egypt’s investigation committee said in a statement that a specialist vessel owned by Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search was forced to salvage the device in stages because it was extensively damaged, but was able to retrieve the memory unit.

“The vessel’s equipment was able to salvage the part that contains the memory unit, which is considered the most important part of the recording device,” the statement said.

Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered that the recovered device be handed over to Egyptian air accident investigators for analysis.

Two specialist vessels, John Lethbridge and Laplace, are continuing to search for the second black box, which contains the flight data recorder. They have yet to detect signals from that device but have identified the location of the main parts of the wreckage.

The black boxes are usually located in the tail, so finding the wreckage and one of the devices narrows the search.

The investigation committee said on Monday the black boxes were expected to stop emitting signals around June 24. That would make the second device harder to find because the plane crashed in some of the deepest waters of the Mediterranean, about 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) below the surface.

SOURCE REUTERS, Read more..