Egyptian investigators are to decide shortly whether the memory units of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804's black box recorders will need to be sent abroad or can be repaired locally, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy says.
If the memory units are sent abroad, it will be for a 24-hour period and under Egyptian supervision, Fathy told reporters on Tuesday at a contract signing with an airport security company.
"The experts on the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee will determine today if the black box memory units need to be sent abroad, in which case it will be for 24 hours under Egyptian supervision," the minister said.
Egypt would decide which country to send the memory units to, he added. Egyptian investigators are being assisted by counterparts from France's BEA air accident agency and the United State's National Transportation Safety Board.
The Airbus A320 crashed on May 19 on its way to Cairo from Paris, killing all 66 people abroad. France is taking part in the investigation as the plane's point of origin and as the country of manufacture. The plane's engine was US-made.
"We will not treat the plane's case in a political manner and the results of the investigation will be announced with the utmost transparency," Fathy said.
The crash was the third blow since October to Egypt's travel industry, which is still suffering from the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
A Russian plane went down in the Sinai Peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked by a man wearing a fake suicide belt. No one was hurt.
