Signal detected from crashed EgyptAir plane's black box; breakthrough can help find cause of disaster

A signal has been detected from one of two black boxes of EgyptAir plane which crashed last month in the Mediterranean killing all 66 people on board, authorities said today, a breakthrough that can help find the cause of the disaster.

French vessel “La Place”, which is participating in the search for the plane, has picked up signal coming from deep in the sea and believed to be from one of the black boxes of the plane, an Egyptian committee investigating the crash said in a statement.

French investigators confirmed the news. “The signal from a beacon from a flight recorder has been detected” by “La Place”, said a French official. An intensive search is currently underway to locate the precise position of the black boxes, which are believed to be at a depth of about 9,842 feet underwater.
A second ship, John Lethbridge affiliated with the Deep Ocean Search firm, will join the search team later this week, it said. The cause of the tragedy still has not been determined. The Airbus A-320’s black box recorders could be critical in identifying the cause of the disaster.

EgyptAir flight MS804 disappeared from radar screens in the early hours of May 19, before it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea with all 66 passengers and crew on board presumed dead. Some body parts and small pieces of debris have been recovered.

The search for the plane has been narrowed to a 5-kilometer -wide area in the Mediterranean Sea based on signals from the its emergency beacon. Egypt has earlier said the likelihood of a terror attack was stronger than technical problems that caused the tragedy.

Leaked flight data indicated that a sensor detected smoke in a lavatory and a fault in two of the plane’s cockpit windows in the final moments of the flight.