'No complete remains found'
2004-01-08 09:12
Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt - France said on Wednesday it has picked up a strong signal from the second flight recorder of the Egyptian plane that plunged into the Red Sea, as relatives flew in from Paris to mourn the 148 people who died in the crash.
"The signal of the second black box has been picked up. The two black boxes have not been located, but their position approximately determined," Rear Admiral Jacques Mazars told a media conference.
However, the signal from the recorder, which may contain clues to the cause of the crash, came from an area that it is too deep for a French Navy submarine robot in the area to retrieve, he said.
The new signal is being emitted from a point that is 1 500m from an earlier one the navy suspects is coming from the other recorder, but both are in waters about 800m deep.
Mazars said he believed the two recorders were so far apart because the plane had splintered after having nosedived at 45° and slammed into the water at 500km/h.
Like hitting concrete
It was much like hitting concrete, said the admiral who heads the French part of the Egyptian-led investigation. "When a plane hits a concrete slab at this speed, it scatters. The plane broke into small pieces," Mazars said.
The Boeing 737 operated by Egyptian charter company Flash Airlines crashed minutes after take-off from Egypt's resort at Sharm el-Sheikh before dawn on Saturday, killing all 148 aboard, most of them French tourists.
About 109 relatives of the victims, accompanied by psychiatrists and psychologists, arrived here about 19:00 on Wednesday to attend memorials on shore and sea on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin will attend the ceremonies and meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The French mourners will attend a memorial on a hilltop as well as visit the crash site aboard the Navy ship Somme and lay a wreath there.
60 body parts
A French psychiatrist said the families faced the extra burden of never seeing the bodies of their loved ones. French officials have said that so far only 60 body parts have been recovered without any complete remains being found.
DNA experts were on site to try to identify them.
Mazars' remarks bolstered the worst fears that no whole bodies would be found, despite progress toward finding the black boxes.
However, Mazars appeared more optimistic when he discussed the plane's engines, which he said are "more dense" than the other parts and maybe they are in a better shape.
In Paris, senior French officials have said the crash looked like a "classic accident" at take-off, with transport minister Gilles de Robien saying the plane appeared to have suddenly lost power.
Mazars said the salvage teams have "three to four weeks to find" the black boxes. This is the estimated duration of the batteries feeding the pinger sending the signal, he said.
- AFP