French naval ship to join EgyptAir search

Unpublished
PARIS - A French naval ship specialising in underwater searches is on its way to help find the flight recorders of an EgyptAir plane that crashed last week. On Thursday, Egypt's chief investigator said the search had narrowed to about 5km (3.1 miles) in the Mediterranean. This was based on a signal from the plane's emergency beacon, but officials now say the signal was received on the day of the crash and is not new. There were 66 people on board when the Airbus A320 crashed on 19 May. The plane was flying overnight from Paris to Cairo when it vanished from Greek and Egyptian radar screens, apparently without having sent a distress call. France's air accident investigation agency, the BEA, confirmed a naval oceanographic research ship, Laplace, is heading for the crash site. In a statement, it said the ship was due to reach the crash area on Sunday or Monday, carrying a long-range acoustic system able to detect signals from the black box.(FA)

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