Searchers Detect EgyptAir Jet's Black Box

French investigators say they have detected signals from one of the black box flight recorders on the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean last month.

The breakthrough came as the crew of La Place narrowed their search from a three-mile (5km) area to just over a one-mile (2km) area where the jet is believed to have come down on 19 May, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board

The French air accident investigation agency BEA said it is impossible to determine from the signals whether they were from the jet's data or voice recorder.

Nonetheless, the development has raised hopes the boxes could be retrieved and shed light on the crash, the cause of which remains a mystery.

Egyptian officials said a second ship, John Lethbridge, affiliated with the Deep Ocean Search firm, will join the search team later this week.

          EgyptAir Crash: Human Remains Found

    

Locator pings emitted by black boxes, can be picked up from deep underwater.

The La Place is equipped with three deep-water devices known as Detector 6000s which can detect and localise the signals.

David Learmount, a consulting editor at the aviation news website Flightglobal, said the black boxes' batteries can transmit signals up to 30 days after the crash.

But even if the batteries expire, locating the boxes remains a possibility.

   First Funeral Of EgyptAir Jet Crash

 

An example of this, he said, was the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash in the Atlantic Ocean, when black boxes were found two years later.

Some debris from the plane - including life vests, passenger belongings and pieces of wreckage - had already been found, but the fuselage and black boxes were still missing before the latest discovery.

Human remains have also been recovered, and a Cairo forensics team is carrying out DNA tests to identify the victims.

Egyptian authorities have said they believe terrorism is more likely to have caused the crash than equipment failure, although no militant group has so far claimed responsibility.

 

An example of this, he said, was the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash in the Atlantic Ocean, when black boxes were found two years later.

Some debris from the plane - including life vests, passenger belongings and pieces of wreckage - had already been found, but the fuselage and black boxes were still missing before the latest discovery.

Human remains have also been recovered, and a Cairo forensics team is carrying out DNA tests to identify the victims.

Egyptian authorities have said they believe terrorism is more likely to have caused the crash than equipment failure, although no militant group has so far claimed responsibility.

 

Some aviation experts have said the erratic flight path reported by Greek authorities suggests a bomb blast or a struggle in the cockpit.

Leaked data has indicated a sensor had detected smoke in a toilet and a fault in two of the plane's cockpit windows in the last moments of the flight.