Investigators find parts of missing EgyptAir flight
What caused Airbus A320 flight from Paris to Cairo to go down, killing all 66 people on board, remains a mystery
French solider looks for signs of downed EgyptAir flight (AFP Photo/Marine Nationale/Alexandre Groyer)
Published date: 16 June 2016 10:14 BST
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Last update: 8 years 5 months ago
Pieces of the missing EgyptAir plane's cabin have been found, according to a statement by the country's investigation committee.
The committee said in a statement that a vessel, the John Lethbridge, contracted by the Egyptian government to join search efforts for the data recorders and the wreckage "had identified several main locations of the wreckage". It added that it had obtained images of the wreckage.
The next step, the committee said, will be drawing a map showing the wreckage location.
The EgyptAir plane crashed into the Mediterranean on 19 May, killing all 66 people on board.
The sea where it crashed is believed to be about 3,000 metres deep, and its flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder should have had enough battery power to emit signals for four to five weeks.
Egyptian investigators also confirmed what had already been reported by Greek officials, that the aircraft made a 90-degree left turn followed by a 360-degree turn to the right before disappearing from radar screens.
The French vessel arrived in Egypt on 9 June to join the search for the aircraft, which came down between Egypt and the Greek island of Crete.
A French navy vessel using deep-water listening devices picked up signals from one of the black boxes on 1 June.
Egypt initially suspected the aircraft was brought down by an attack, but it is now thought the crash may have been caused by a technical fault.
Automatic alerts sent by the Airbus plane indicated smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight control unit.
The crash happened seven months after the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula in October that killed all 224 people on board.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack. There has been no such claim over the EgyptAir crash.
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