A French naval search vessel has picked up signals believed to originate from one of the black boxes of EgyptAir flight MS804 which crashed into the Mediterranean last month, the Egyptian investigation committee said on Wednesday.
It said in a statement that the search for the black boxes was intensifying ahead of the expected arrival within a week of another vessel from Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search to help retrieve the devices.
Egypt had on Wednesday last week sought the assistance of two companies, one French and one Italian, in the search for the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane.
EgyptAir flight 804 crashed on May 19 with 66 people on board including 30 Egyptians and 15 from France, and nearly a week later investigators have no clear picture of the plane’s final moments.
EgyptAir chairman, Safwat Moslem, did not name the companies involved, but he told a news conference they were able to search at a depth of 3,000 metres.
The plane and its black box recorders, which could explain what brought down the Paris-to-Cairo flight as it entered Egyptian air space, have not been located.
The black boxes are believed to be lying in up to 3,000 metres of water, on the edge of the range for hearing the signals, emitted once a second.
