One report said the tiny size of the remains must have been caused by an explosion.
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“This type of aircraft is equipped with several optical detectors that are responsible for capturing any smoke clearances and automatically transmit them to the Acars system to which they are connected”, an airport source told the newspaper adding that the sensors can be disturbed by moisture or steam air conditioning, but have been recently “significantly improved” to avoid false alarms.
It said investigators are searching in some of the deepest waters of the Mediterranean for flight recorders from the Airbus A320 which crashed on May 19, killing 66 people.
That conflicts with the account given on the day of the crash by the Greek defense minister, who said the plane swerved and dropped to 15,000 feet before disappearing from radar.
A French ship has picked up signals believed to be from the black boxes of crashed EgyptAir Flight MS804, investigators said Wednesday.
The Laplace has equipment from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, which can pick up black box pinger signals over long distances up to 5 km (3 miles) and was contracted by the Egyptian investigators last week.
The flight recorders will be critical to determining whether the disaster was caused by an accident or a deliberate act.
In its statement Wednesday, the Egyptian investigation committee said the search was intensifying ahead of the arrival of another vessel, the John Lethbridge, from Mauritius-based company Deep Ocean Search to help retrieve the black boxes.
Small pieces of wreckage and some human remains have been found by search teams in wake of the crash.
The statement did not indicate how the company knows that the signals were from the EgyptAir black box. However, the bulk of the plane is believed to be deep under the sea. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the plane and the bags were searched but no bomb was found. The threat caused a delay and eventually led to the flight being cancelled.
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That crash claimed by the Islamic State’s affiliate in Sinai and blamed by Moscow on an explosive device planted on board decimated Egypt’s lucrative tourism industry, which had already been battered by years of turmoil in the country. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.
