Egypt denies locating black boxes for EgyptAir Flight MS804

Egypt denies locating the data recorders for EgyptAir Flight 804 close to an area where human remains and debris from the crashed flight have been found, an informed source in the Egyptian aviation ministry told reporters on Saturday

Earlier, Egyptian government sources confirmed search crews had located the data recorders for EgyptAir Flight 804 close to an area where human remains and debris from the crashed flight have been found

On Friday, sources told CBS News that information was transmitted from the flight indicating that smoke was detected on the plane before it crashed.

According to the sources, the information indicates smoke was coming from one of the engines. The data was transmitted through the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which sends snapshots of engine performance throughout the flight.

Looking for clues to whether terrorists may have brought down the Airbus A320, investigators have been poring over the passenger list and questioned ground crew members at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, from which the plane took off.

The aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies on a nighttime flight to Cairo early Thursday when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and plummeted 38,000 feet into the sea, never issuing a distress signal.

Experts said answers will come only with an examination of the wreckage and the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders, commonly known as black boxes.

Planes and vessels from Egypt and five other countries – Greece, Britain, France, the United States and Cyprus – continued searching a wide area of the eastern Mediterranean on Saturday, a day after the Egyptian military found debris from the passenger jet in the sea 180 miles north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria.

The waters in the area 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.

On Saturday, the Egyptian military posted new photos of debris on its spokesman’s Facebook page. They included what appeared to be parts of a seat, a lifejacket and what looks to be a pink and purple children’s blanket.

source: CBS News, Al  Masry Al Youm