Translation from Le Monde: It will not be possible to recover the black boxes of the flight Paris-Cairo EgyptAir before at least 12 days, the time that a specialized vessel arrives on site, reported Agence France Presse (AFP) sources close of the investigation.
The Airbus A320 suddenly disappeared from radar screens at night May 19th before breaking sea between Crete and the northern coast of Egypt for reasons still unknown. Only the analysis of flight recorders, the "black boxes", will allow to know exactly the causes of the accident.
Egypt and France have signed agreements with two French companies specialized in finding shipwrecks in deep water, and Alseamar Deep Ocean Search (DOS). Forty Egyptians, including the crew, and 15 French are among the victims of the crash.
Read: What is known about the plane EgyptAir disappeared between Paris and Cairo
complementary role
"Both companies have a complementary role, the first to locate the" pings "black boxes [echo sonar emitted by their tags] the second to go down and recover" with a robot, explained AFP in Cairo a source close to the investigation who requested anonymity. But "the DOS specialized ship left the Irish Sea Saturday and will reach the presumed area of the crash in about 12 days, after embarking in Alexandria Egyptian and French investigators," she added.
The information has been confirmed by other sources close to the investigation, which evoke a depth of about 3000 meters in the research area, some 290 km north of the Egyptian coast.
Three DETECTOR-6000 Alseamar immersed equipment can detect "pings" up to 4000 to 5000 meters, were loaded aboard a French naval vessel, the Laplace, who left Corsica Thursday . It should arrive in the presumed area of the crash "Sunday or Monday at the latest," according to one source.
Automatic alerts issued
"Pending the DOS ship equipped to detect" ping "deep water but most of robots able to descend to 6000 meters to retrieve the black boxes, there will be no waste of time and since the Laplace attempt to locate the meantime, "says one of these sources, which evokes, even in 12 days," a very good chance to recover the flight recorders through the combination of the two French companies. "
Time is running out as beacons of these flight recorders can emit only "four to five weeks" before exhausting their batteries.
Read also: In Cairo, MS804 flight passengers families EgyptAir angry against the authorities
The hypothesis of the attack, initially put forward by Egypt, has lost ground to that technical incident since it was found that automatic alerts have been issued by the unit two minutes his fall, indicating smoke in the cockpit and a failure of the computer managing orders.