Cockpit voice recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight recovered

The cockpit voice recorder from crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 has been found but is in a damaged state, an Egyptian committee investigating the crash said on Thursday.

In a statement, the committee said a specialist vessel owned by Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search has, however, been able to recover the memory unit from the recorder.

"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.

The cockpit voice recorder, which captures conversation in the cockpit, is one of the two black boxes being searched for. There is no word on the second black box.

The statement came a day after the Egyptian government announced that the wreckage of flight MS804 has been found in the Mediterranean Sea.

The John Lethbridge, a search boat contracted by the Egyptian Government, provided the first images of the wreckage to investigators. A search team on board along with investigators will now draw a map of the wreckage's distribution spots, the committee said in a statement.

It was not immediately known which parts of the plane had been found, nor whether the two flight recorders were nearby. The recorders, one for voice and another for data, were contained in the tail of the Airbus A320.

Previously collected debris will also be handed over to the investigation committee after "standard procedures" are completed by prosecutors who are currently holding it for forensic evidence, the statement added.

EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, killing all 66 people on board.