EgyptAir flight MS804: French vessel detects signals from crashed plane's black box, investigators say

Updated

A French navy vessel equipped with deep-water listening devices has detected signals from one of the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean, investigators said.

Key points: The signal marks "a first step": BEA official

A deep sea search vessel is on its way to retrieve the black boxes

Black boxes have enough power to emit signals for about a month

The signals were picked up by French survey ship Laplace which is using acoustic detection systems to listen for the "pings" emitted by the flight recorders, France's aviation safety agency BEA said.

"The detection of this signal is a first step," BEA official Remi Jouty said.

The flight recorders could contain crucial information to help solve the mystery of why the Airbus A320 plunged into the sea with 66 people on board en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19.

A digital flight data recorder gathers information about the speed, altitude and direction of the plane, while a cockpit voice recorder keeps track of conversations and other sounds in the pilots' cabin.

Egypt's Ministry of Civil Aviation had announced the potential breakthrough earlier, saying the signals were "assumed to be from one of the data recorders".

The French navy, in a statement, said the flight recorders still had to be precisely located at a estimated depth of 3,000 metres.

Some of the wreckage has already been pulled from the Mediterranean along with passenger belongings — no survivors have been found.

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 to retrieve the recorders.

The ship is due to arrive at the site within a week.

"Extensive search efforts are being carried out to locate the two data recorders in preparation for their retrieval," the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.

The jet's flight recorders or black boxes are designed to emit acoustic signals for 30 days after a crash, giving search teams fewer than three weeks to spot them in waters up to 3,000-meters deep, which is on the edge of their range.

Investigators have said it is too soon to determine what caused the disaster although a terror attack has not been ruled out.

France's aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight control unit minutes before disappearing from radar screens.

Reuters/AFP

Topics: disasters-and-accidents, egypt

First posted