EgyptAir crash: Paris prosecutor opens manslaughter inquiry

EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean on 19 May

The Paris prosecutor has opened a manslaughter investigation into last month's EgyptAir plane crash.

A spokeswoman told the Associated Press that it would begin as an accident inquiry because there was no evidence so far to link it to terrorism.

The authorities, she said, were "not at all" favouring the theory the Airbus A320 was brought down deliberately. Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May, killing all 66 people on board.

Earlier on Monday, Egyptian investigators said the damaged memory chips from the plane's cockpit voice and data recorders had been flown to France.

Technicians at France's BEA air accident investigations agency will attempt to clean and repair them, and then send them back to Egypt for analysis.

The flight recorders were recovered from the plane's wreckage, about 290km (180 miles) north of the Egyptian coast and at a depth of about 3,000m (9,800ft). The cause of the crash remains a mystery.

Automated electronic messages sent by the plane revealed that smoke detectors went off in a toilet and in the avionics area below the cockpit, minutes before the plane's signal was lost.

Radar data shows the plane turned 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right, dropping from 11,300m (37,000ft) to 4,600m (15,000ft) and then 3,000m (10,000ft) before it disappeared.