In a major breakthrough, French investigators searching for signs of the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the sea on May 19 said today they’ve detected signals from one of the jet’s crucial “black box” recorders, which are presumably somewhere below the Mediterranean Sea.
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The report added that the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry already released a statement that the French ship indeed detected signals from underneath the Mediterranean, which could be assumed as the signals emitted by one of the missing plane’s black box.
“The signal from a beacon from a flight recorder has been detected” by navy vessel Laplace, said Remi Jouty of France’s Bureau of Investigations and Analysis (BEA).
The EgyptAir Airbus that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea two weeks ago was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing at least three times in the 24 hours before it disappeared, according to reports.
Another vessel sent by Deep Ocean Search (DOS), a private company hired to help find the black boxes, is on its way to the area carrying a ship with a robot capable of diving up to 3,000 metres (yards) to retrieve the recorders.
A woman passes by photos of EgyptAir flight 804 victims, at the Cairo Opera House in Cairo, Egypt May 26, 2016.
Egyptian officials believe terrorism is a more likely explanation for the crash than equipment failure. However, it will be sent overseas if it is in poor condition, he said.
“The tail is like the neck of the human body”.
Galal said after determining the location of the recorders, the second mission would be to photograph the recorders and the wreckage to determine how to retrieve them.
Almost two weeks after the crash off Egypt’s northern coast, the cause of the tragedy has still not been determined.
The Islamic State did claim responsibility for another recent Egyptian aviation disaster: the downing of a Russian passenger plane bound for St. Petersburg from the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh last October, which killed all 224 aboard.
“The information will direct the investigation in a certain direction”, said Hany Galal, a retired pilot and plane crash investigator.
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CNN’s Ian Lee in Cairo said they have yet to locate exactly where the signals are coming from. Moscow claims that incident was caused by a bomb. The threat caused a delay and eventually led to the flight being cancelled.
