France sends underwater probes to EgyptAir search zone

A French naval vessel was en route to the eastern Mediterranean on Thursday to join the hunt for black boxes from a crashed EgyptAir jet, equipped with three specialist probes from a French company recruited to accelerate the search.

According to France 24, the French air accident investigation agency, the BEA, said in a statement the Laplace ship left Thursday from Corsica for the zone of the crash, with two BEA investigators aboard.

The Laplace is equipped with three detectors made by the ALSEAMAR company designed to detect and localize signals from the flight recorders, believed to be about 3,000 meters underwater.

France may also send an unmanned submarine and deep-sea retrieval equipment.

ALSEAMAR’s equipment includes three of its DETECTOR-6000 systems, designed to pick up black-box pinger signals over long distances up to 5km, according to the company’s website.

It works by dipping a slender probe into the water to listen for pings and then retrieving it to download the findings.

ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, did not respond to a request for comment.

Negotiations are also under way to contract a second firm, Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search, to search more than one area, French and Egyptian officials said.

Source ; MENA