EgyptAir flight MS804: Main locations of plane's wreckage identified, investigation team says

Updated

The main locations of wreckage from the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the eastern Mediterranean last month have been identified by a deep ocean search vessel, the Egyptian-led investigation committee says.

Key points: Investigators will now draw up a map of the wreckage locations

It was not specified which parts of the plane had been identified

Investigators are racing against the clock to find the black boxes which are expected to stop emitting signals on June 24

The John Lethbridge, a search boat contracted by the Egyptian Government, has provided the first images of wreckage to investigators.

The pieces of fuselage were found at "several sites", the Egyptian board of inquiry said in a statement.

A search team on board along with investigators will now draw a map of the wreckage's distribution spots, the committee said in a statement.

It was not immediately specified which parts of the plane had been found, nor whether the two flight recorders were nearby.

The recorders, one for voice and another for data, were contained in the tail of the Airbus A320.

The search vessel is working against the clock to locate the "black boxes" that investigators say will help explain why Flight MS804 crashed on May 19, killing all 66 people on board.

Signals from the flight data recorders needed to track them down on the seabed are expected to expire on June 24.

Previously collected debris will also be handed over to the investigation committee after "standard procedures" are completed by prosecutors who are currently holding it for forensic evidence, the statement added.

To recover the black boxes some 3,000 metres below the sea surface, investigators will need to pinpoint the signals to within a few metres and establish whether the pingers are still connected to the recorders.

Flight MS804 was flying from Paris to Cairo when on Thursday May 19 when it disappeared soon after crossing from Greek into Egyptian airspace.

About three minutes after it disappeared off the radar, the plane transmitted a number of automatic messages indicating there was smoke in the cabin.

The plane did not send out a distress signal before crashing between the island off Karpathos and the Egyptian coastline.

ABC/wires

Topics: air-and-space, egypt

First posted