Investigators into EgyptAir's plane crash need at least 12 days to re- Cover its black boxes as they aWait a Ship that can retrieve them from the bottom of the Mediterranean, investigation sources said on Sunday. The Airbus A320 plane crashed into the Mediterranean with 66 people on board during a May 19 flight from Paris to Cairo, after disappearing from radar Screens. Investigators are in a race against time to find the flight recorders, known as the black boxes, which have enough bat- tery power to emit signals for four or five
The recordings could help investiga- tors determine the reason for the crash. The plane was carrying passengers from different nationalities, with 40 Egyp- tians including the crew and 15 French nationals Egypt's aviation minister had initially said a terrorist attack was more likely to have brought down the plane, but a tech nical failure is also possible France's aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight control unit min utes before losing contact. Egypt and France have signed agree- ments with two French companies spe- cialising in deep water searches, Alseamar and Deep Ocean Search(DOS)