EgyptAir black box flight recorder 'has been repaired'

One of the two black box flight recorders from the EgyptAir plane that plunged into the Mediterranean last month has been repaired, Egypt's investigation commission said on Tuesday, prompting hopes it could provide clues on why the aircraft went down.

The two black box recorders were found two weeks ago, but were too damaged to extract information on what caused the passenger jet to go down.

They were sent to France's BEA air safety agency – which also extracted data from the black boxes of the ill-fated Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight that crashed in 2009 – to be repaired, where they arrived on Monday.

Investigators hope the recorders will reveal the cause of the May 19 crash of flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo, in which all 66 people on board were killed. A terror attack has not been ruled out.