A research vessel with an underwater robot is set to begin searching the Mediterranean "as from Friday" (June 10th) for the wreck of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, according to the French aviation safety agency BEA.
Egypt has hired the "John Lethbridge", owned by the private Deep Ocean Search company, to comb the ocean floor for the Airbus A320 that went down with 66 people aboard en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19th, AFP reported.
The ship is en route to the site, BEA director Remi Jouty said.
A French navy vessel using deep-water listening devices picked up signals from one of the black boxes over a week ago, but so far it has failed to locate either it or the second recorder.
"For the moment we are hopeful of managing to locate these recorders while they continue to emit (pings)," Jouty said, acknowledging "we have to be quick".
The "John Lethbridge" has a side scan sonar that provides digital images of the seabed, as well as a robot that is capable of diving to 3,000 metres.
Investigators have said it is too soon to determine what caused the disaster, though speculation initially centred on a terror attack.
