Second Specialist Vessel To Join EgyptAir Search

A second ship with specialist search equipment will join the hunt for the flight recorders and wreckage of EgyptAir flight MS804, the head of France's air accident investigation safety agency said.

A French naval supply vessel picked up a signal from one of the two recorders on June 1, and Egypt has chartered a second vessel operated by Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search, equipped with a suitable sonar and underwater vehicle.

Remi Jouty, director of the BEA air accident agency which is advising Egypt on the underwater search, said the first ship continued to pick up locator signals from the first recorder, whose location had been narrowed to a radius of 1-2 km.

Pending the search for the two flight recorders, the Egyptian-led investigation is still "very far" from understanding why flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, killing all 66 people on board, Jouty told a group of aviation journalists in Paris.