EgyptAir Cockpit Voice Recorder Has Been Recovered, Egyptian Officials Say

A ship in the Mediterranean has recovered the cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir Flight 804 and taken images of "several main locations" of the plane's wreckage, Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority says.

The recorder was damaged, the agency said Wednesday, but the search team was able to recover the device's memory unit.

The recorder and the images were obtained by the ship John Lethbridge, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

The Associated Press reports that the vessel is operated by the U.S. company Deep Ocean Search and arrived at the search area on Sunday. The ship is equipped with underwater detection equipment, such as sonar, that can explore up to 6,000 feet below the sea's surface.

Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea nearly a month ago, killing all 66 people aboard.

What caused the Airbus A320 to crash is still unknown. Investigators are hoping the voice recorder will shed light on what, exactly, happened. The plane's flight-data recorder has not yet been found.

Some small pieces of debris from the plane had previously been discovered by search crews, but the search continued for the bulk of the wreckage.

The Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority says search teams are now working on mapping the main wreckage locations and discussing how to "best handle the wreckage."