- Pieces of the cabin from the missing EgyptAir plane which crashed into the Mediterranean last month have been found, Egyptian investigators said Wednesday, June 15, AFP reports.
A French vessel taking part in the search discovered pieces of fuselage at "several sites", the Egyptian board of inquiry said in a statement.
The Airbus A320 which had been en route from Paris to Cairo disappeared on May 19, with the loss of all 66 people on board.
The "John Lethbridge" research boat, which made the find, arrived in Egypt last week to begin searching the Mediterranean for the wreckage with an underwater robot.
The discovery comes after investigators warned on Monday that signals from the plane's black boxes would stop operating by the end of the month, AFP says.
The area of sea where it crashed is believed to be about 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) deep and its flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder should have had enough battery power to emit signals for four to five weeks.
Investigators have said it is too soon to determine what caused the disaster although a terror attack has not been ruled out.
France's aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight control unit minutes before disappearing from radar screens.
Investigators were able to narrow down the search site thanks to an emergency signal sent via satellite by the plane's locator transmitter when it hit the Mediterranean.
