Weeks after EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, Egyptian and French search teams are still looking for the black box of the plane. The black box will give clues as to what transpired minutes before the crash. Last June 1, a report said that the 'ping' detected by the French vessel was from the missing plane's black box.
EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed last May 19, on a journey from Paris to Cairo. Last week, officials from Airbus, the plane maker, said that the pings detected are automated signal from the plane and not necessarily from the black box. However, a report by ABC News said that a French official confirmed that the pings are indeed coming from the EgyptAir Flight 804 black box.
The state-of-the-art French vessel involved in the search is capable of detecting signals from underwater sources. The report added that the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry already released a statement that the French ship indeed detected signals from underneath the Mediterranean, which could be assumed as the signals emitted by one of the missing plane's black box.
But despite the confirmation of the existence of the black boxes' signal, the location of the box remains unknown.
The recovery of the black box will help forensic experts give light to the pressing question of what could have caused the crash. Previous reports state that the bodies recovered were torn into pieces suggesting a blast occurred before the plane crashed, but the lack of explosive trace confuses the investigation.
"We have to find where the boxes are exactly and decide on how to pull them out," said Shaker Kelada, and EgyptAir official in a statement published by Japan Times. He added that the next step is to determine the box's exact location and its retrieval, citing that proper handling of the black box should be employed to assure that no further damage will be inflicted.
The French vessel started searching for the signal on Tuesday and was able to retrieve signals in less than 24 hours.