Underwater signal confirmed as coming from EgyptAir flight MS804 ‘black box’

A signal detected by the French search vessel La Place has been confirmed by Remy Jouty, Director of BEA, France’s air accident investigation agency, as coming from one of the flight data recorders onboard EgyptAir flight MS804. The Airbus A320 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, with 66 passengers and crew on board, while travelling from Paris to Cairo.
According to Jouty, “The signal of a beacon from a flight recorder could be detected. … The detection of this signal is a first step.” With the signal being confirmed as coming from Flight MS804, it is anticipated that a specialist vessel from the Deep Ocean Search company will be dispatched to the location within a week in order to retrieve the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – it is hoped that they will reveal evidence to give a clear understanding of what specifically caused the crash.
While so far only small pieces of debris, remains of victims and personal effects have been recovered, the fuselage has not been located, though locating the signal means the search is closing in. According to CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiav, “That means they’re probably within one to three miles (of the black boxes). That is the distance that these beacons can broadcast, so they are literally almost on top of them.”
Once recovered, the black boxes will be taken to Egypt as standard procedure, similar to what happened with the recorders from Metrojet Flight 9268, which crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The recorders gather data from 25 hours of flying time and will reveal such information as the plane’s speed, engine performance, altitude and wing positions. The cockpit voice recorder not only records conversations between the pilots, but also warning alarms and other background noise. By studying the ambient sounds within a cockpit prior to a crash, experts can establish more clearly what happened, including whether a stall occurred and what speed the plane was travelling at.