Investigators into EgyptAir’s plane crash need at least 12 days to recover its black boxes as they await a ship that can retrieve them from the bottom of the Mediterranean, investigation sources say.
The Airbus A320 plane crashed into the Mediterranean with 66 people on board during a May 19 flight from Paris to Cairo, after disappearing from radar screens.
Investigators are in a race against time to find the flight recorders, known as the black boxes, which have enough battery power to emit signals for four or five weeks.
Egypt and France have signed agreements with two French companies specializing in deep water searches, Alseamar and Deep Ocean Search (DOS).
“Those two companies have complementary roles: the first is for locating the pings of the black boxes (the signal being emitted by the black boxes’ beacon), while the second is for diving and recovering them” with the help of a robot, a source close to the investigation told AFP in Cairo, requesting anonymity.
This still image taken from video posted Saturday, May 21, 2016, on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman shows an Egyptian ship collecting wreckage of EgyptAir flight 804. (Egyptian Armed Forces via AP)
“But the DOS specialized ship left the Irish sea Saturday and it will reach the perceived crash site only in around 12 days, after having the Egyptian and French investigators embark in Alexandria,” the source added.
A source said that after 12 days, “there is a very good chance of recovering the flight recordings thanks to the combination of these two French companies.”
— AFP
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