EgyptAir flight 804 signals detected, still no clear cause

A week after the Airbus A320 crashed carrying 66 people, investigators still have no clear picture of its final moments, with only scattered floating wreckage and some human remains found. Search teams are working against the clock to find the two flight recorders that would offer vital clues on the unfolding of events in the plane’s final moments. Acoustic signals that help pinpoint the boxes in deep water stop after about 30 days.

On Friday, Egyptian state newspaper al-Ahram quoted Egypt’s lead investigator, Ayman al-Moqadem, saying a radio signal had been received from an emergency locator transmitter (ELT), potentially helping to narrow the search area.

The ELT sends out a transmission that can be picked up by satellites in the international search-and-rescue network when an aircraft is in an accident. It is separate from the underwater locator beacons (ULB) attached to the flight recorders, which send out acoustic rather than radio signals and are designed to be more easily detected underwater.

But doubts have been cast on whether an ELT on flight 804 could have survived or sent signals from underwater.

“There is a low likelihood the ELT would survive, and radio doesn’t work as well as acoustic signals underwater,” former pilot and chief executive of Washington-based Safety Operating Systems John Cox said.

France’s BEA air crash investigation agency, which is working as part of the Egyptian-led investigation into the crash, said the naval survey vessel Laplace had left Corsica and was heading towards the search zone north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria, the Guardian reports.

It added that two of its investigators were on board the Laplace, which was carrying equipment from Alseamar, a firm specialising in searching for marine wrecks.

Alseamar’s equipment includes three of its Detector-6000 systems, designed to pick up pinger signals over distances of up to 5km, according to the company.

French diplomatic sources told the Guardian that France and Egypt are finalising a contract with a second firm to be involved, most likely Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search.

“The investigating team received radar imagery and audio recordings from Greece detailing the flight trajectory of the doomed plane and the last conversation between its pilot and Greek air traffic control,”Egypt’s head of air accident investigations Moqadem said.

It was expecting France to hand over radar imagery and other data covering the plane’s time in French airspace and on the ground in Paris, he added.

Moqadem said no bodies had been recovered so far, with search teams able to locate only small body parts. DNA tests were under way to identify the remains.