Search area narrows as beacon signal detected from crashed EgyptAir jet

Search teams in the Mediterranean have picked up a beacon believed to be from the EgyptAir plane which crashed, the chief investigator has said. The discovery narrows down the search area to a three-mile (5km) radius, Ayman al-Moqadem said, But he insisted it did not mean the flight data and cockpit voice recorders - the so-called black boxes - had been found. Instead, the signal came from one of the devices on the plane transmitting its location, he added.

There isn’t even a whole body part, like an arm or a head. The logical explanation is that it was an explosion

Egyptian forensic official on the discovery of human remains from the crash

The fate of EgyptAir Flight 804, which had 66 people on board and was heading from Paris to Cairo, remains uncertain. It is believed to have crashed into the sea as it neared the end of the four-hour flight and investigators hope the black box data will reveal whether it was the result of a fire, a technical problem or a terrorist attack. Deep water searches for the wreckage and black boxes will start in the coming days. Two French air crash investigators were on board a French navy surveillance vessel La Place, which set sail from Corsica on Thursday. A second vessel equipped with a deep-sea exploration robot and the recovery capabilities required to work at an estimated depth of 3,000m (10,000ft) may also join the mission.

It is far too soon to interpret and understand the cause of the accident as long as we have not found the wreckage or the flight data recorders

French air crash investigators

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