EgyptAir search closes in on black boxes
Print Edition
SEARCH teams zeroed in on the wreckage of EgyptAir flight MS804 yesterday, following the detection of a signal from one of the jet’s black boxes by a French ship overnight on Tuesday.
An Egyptian source on the investigation committee told reporters the search zone for the crashed Airbus A320 had been reduced to a 2-kilometer radius.
Alain Vidalies, France’s transport minister, said it would be about eight days before the flight recorder could be recovered from the seabed.
Locating the black boxes is crucial to understanding why the jet plummeted into the Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19, killing all 66 people on board.
Safwat Musallam, EgyptAir’s chairman, denied French media reports that the aircraft had sent a series of technical warnings during flights to Asmara in Eritrea and Tunis in the 24 hours before it disappeared off radar screens.
“For me it’s not true,” Musallam said on the sidelines of an IATA meeting in Dublin.
Musallam said the aircraft had not experienced any maintenance issues before departure and that the plane was “normal.” “We fully trust the aircraft and the pilot,” he said.
Without the black boxes, which lie in waters up to 3,000 meters deep, investigators do not have enough information to determine whether the airplane suffered a technical problem or was brought down deliberately.
The jet transmitted a series of messages in the minutes before it crashed showing a rise in temperature at the co-pilot’s window and smoke on board, but investigators say these shed little light on the cause of the plane’s disappearance.
Vidalies said he could not confirm reports the jet sent warnings indicating smoke through an automatic reporting system on earlier flights.
“We have ... a sudden event which could point toward an attack. On the other hand we have other information which points more toward an accident,” Vidalies said.
There are conflicting reports of the plane’s last moments as it crossed from Greek to Egyptian airspace.
The head of Egypt’s air navigation has said the plane suddenly disappeared from radar while cruising at about 37,000 feet.
On the day of the crash the Greek defense minister said the plane swerved and dropped to 15,000 feet before disappearing.
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