Egyptian officials are reporting that they have found the flight recorder – often referred to as the “black box” – from EgyptAir Flight MS804, which went down over the Mediterranean last month. There is no indication as of yet what the recorder reveals, but its discovery may help shed light on the mysterious disappearance of the plane, which is widely believed to have been the result of terrorism.

All that is known at this point is that smoke was detected in both the front and rear sensors of the plane, but the pilots did not make any sort of mayday call or report the smoke to flight control. Shortly before losing contact, Greek radar reported that the plane veered off course and made a series of unusual movements.

Much of the subsequent investigation has been hampered by false reports, the recalcitrance of the Egyptian government (who have made contradictory and confusing statements) to be forthcoming with information in light of the numerous security issues that have plagued Egyptian flights recently, and a lack of hard data. Hopefully, the information in the flight recorder will help investigators piece together the cause of the crash.