Probable detection of one of the Egyptair 804 black boxes announced

THE BEA (the French air accident investigation agency) has released news that signals from one of the black boxes from the recent Egyptair crash have been detected by a Hydrographic survey ship of the French Navy LaPlace which only arrived in the area on Tuesday May 31.

An Egyptian ministry of aviation statement said that the vessel had picked up “signals from the seabed of the wreckage search area, assumed to be from one of the data recorders” and added that a second ship, the John Lethbridge, which has a robot submarine able to undertake submersions up to 3,000 metres would be joining the search later in the week.Time is now of the essence as the black boxes have batteries with only a limited lifespan.

There is still some disagreement about whether the loss of the aircraft was caused by terrorist activity or mechanical failure as no organisation has claimed responsibility and the recovery of the black box should help to solve this riddle.

It is generally considered that the bulk of the aircraft will be underwater but pieces of wreckage and some human remains have been discovered on the surface and scientists are checking the DNA of the human remains in order to see whether they are able to identify any of the 66 victims of the crash.