WORLD 7 EGYPTAIR CRASH Black box might take 12 days 3,000m, some 290km north of the Egyp CAIRO: Investigators into EgyptAir's messages indicating smoke in the cabin plane crash need at least 12 days to and a fault in the flight control unit mini tian coast. Three of Auseamar's Detector. recover its black bo as they await a ship utes before losing contact acoustic detection systems, which sub that can retrieve them from the bottom of Egypt and France have signed agree the Mediterranean, investigation sources ments with two French companies spe merged can detect pings for up to 4,000 to 5,000m below sea level left the French said on Sunday. cialising in deep water searches, Alsea island of Corsica for the crash s The Airbus A320 plane crashed into the mar and Deep Ocean Search(DOS) Mediterranean with 66 people on board Those two companies have comple Thursday onboard Laplace. a French during a May 19 flight from Paris to Cairo, mentary roles: The first is for locating the navy ship lt will arrive at the perceived cra after disappearing from radar screens. pings of the black boxes l the signal being Investigators are in a race against emitted by the black boxes' beacon] site on Sunday, or Monday at the latest time to find the flight recorders, known while the second is for diving and recov according to one of the sources as the black boxes, which have enough ering them with the help of a robot, a While we are waiting for the DOS battery power to emit signals for four or source close to the investigation said in ship, equipped for detecting the pings five weeks. Cairo, requesting anonymity in deep waters but, more importantly The recordings could help investiga But the DOS specialised ship left the the robots capable of descending up to tors determine the reason for the crash. Irish sea on Saturday and it will reach 6,000m to recover the black bo w The plane was carrying passengers the perceived crash site only in around will not be wasting time as Leplace wil from different nationalities, with 40 12 days, after having the Egyptian and be trying to locate them in the meantime, Egyptians including the crew and 15 French investigators embark in Alexan said one of the sources dria, the source added French nationals. The source added that after 12 days, The investigation into the crash is led Egypt's aviation minister had initially there is a verygood chance ofrecovering said a terrorist attack was more likely to by an Egyptian-headed committee. the flight recordings thanks to the combi have brought down the plane, but a tech other sources close to the investiga nation of these two French companies nical failure is also possible. tion confirmed the information. Two members of the French avia- The investigators are searching for tion safety agency BEA are on board France's aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted automated the flight recorders at a depth of around Leplace.AFP