CBS News: Egyptian Government Source Claims EgyptAir Black Boxes Located
CAIRO (CBSNewYork/AP) -- An Egyptian government source claims search crews have located the data recorders from EgyptAir Flight 804 close to the area where they have found wreckage and human remains, CBS News reported.
The boxes were believed to be in Mediterranean waters around 180 miles north of Alexandria, CBS News' Jonathan Vigliotti reported. The waters are 8,000 to 10,000 feet deep and the pings from the black boxes can be detected up to a depth of 20,000 feet.
The data could help determine what caused the plane to plummet wildly into the Mediterranean Sea Thursday morning, killing all 66 people on board.
Military spokesman Brig-Gen. Mohammed Samir said Saturday he had no information to share on the location or the retrieval of the black boxes.
Meanwhile, the first photographs have emerged of debris of Flight 804.
The Egyptian military posted the photos Saturday on its spokesman's Facebook page. They appear to show the heavily damaged remains of plane seats, life jackets, one of which is seemingly undamaged, and a scrap of cloth that looks to be part of a baby's blanket or sleeping bag.
A brief video was later posted that showed more debris, including seat belts, a shoe and what appeared to be a woman's purse.
The Egyptian military announced Friday that it had found the debris in the eastern Mediterranean, around 180 miles north of Alexandria.
The French air accident investigation agency said smoke was detected in multiple places in the plane before it crashed in the Mediterranean, but the cause remains unclear.
Spokesman Sebastien Barthe told The Associated Press that the plane's automatic detection system sent messages indicating smoke a few minutes before it disappeared from radar.
He said the messages "generally mean the start of a fire'' adding, "we are drawing no conclusions from this. Everything else is pure conjecture.''
The industry publication Aviation Herald reported Friday that sensors detected smoke in the plane's lavatory, suggesting a fire onboard.
No hard evidence has emerged to why the plane dropped off radar, swerved wildly and plummeted early Thursday morning.
Investigators are considering the possibility of a terror attack. No militant group claims to have brought down the plane. Egyptian officials said its to early to determine the cause of the crash.
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