CAIRO, Jun  17 (Aswat Masriya) - The flight data recorder, the second black box, of the doomed EgyptAir flight was recovered early on Friday, said the Egyptian investigation committee.

The ship JOHN LETHBRIGDE, owned by Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search company managed to recover the second black box, said the investigation committee in a statement .

Search teams have recovered the cockpit voice recorder, the first black box, on Thursday. According to a statement by the investigation team, the first black box was damaged but the ship's equipment "managed to pick up the memory unit; which is considered as the most important part of the above-mentioned recorder."

The black boxes are designed to sustain damage during an accident and both typically, are vital for concluding the cause of a crash.

The EgyptAir flight which was carrying 66 people on board crashed on May 19 en route from Paris to Cairo.

The flight lost contact with radar as it was crossing the Mediterranean about 280 km from the Egyptian seacoast at 02:30 am Cairo local time, about 45 minutes before its scheduled arrival at Cairo airport.

Following the crash, France sent out a search vessel Laplace which has equipment from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, enabling it to pick up pinger signals of the black boxes.

Egypt also contracted with Deep Ocean Search, specializing in marine wreckage searches, to help in the search and retrieval of the boxes.