Media reports on Thursday suggested that a new signal had allowed officials to further home in on where the black box recorders might be located.
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Investigators have about 30 days of battery life left before the black box signal transmissions go silent. It is equipped with three specialist probes to speed up the search.
“On this occasion, I want to express on behalf of French authorities our condolences to all those who lost their beloved in this crash, and also I want to express special sympathy to EgyptAir and all the members of EgyptAir staff”, said Andre Parant, French Ambassador in Egypt.
France and Egypt will share the costs for the search, which faces a race against the clock, as the flight data and voice recorders emit locator “pings” for no more than about a month.
Some body parts and small pieces of debris have been recovered.
Egypt’s civil-aviation minister Sherif Fathi has said he believes terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure.
A string of error messages sent automatically minutes before the A320 plunged into the sea indicated that smoke had been detected beneath the cockpit and in a lavatory, and that windows next to the co-pilot’s seat may have been broken, together with unspecified issues with flight computers.
Egyptians light candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804, in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, May 26, 2016.
Airbus shared the signal’s location information with Egyptian officials, which helped narrow the search area to a 5km zone now being scoured by air and sea.
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“The device only operates when an aircraft strikes a hard object”, a source at the Egypt-led investigative committee said. The number 66 refers to the number of the victims.
