The EgyptAir flight that crashed sent a distress signal before it crashed, it has been confirmed.
The Airbus 320 was flying from Paris to Cairo when it disappeared over the Mediterranean on May 19 with 66 people on board, triggering a flurry of speculation as to the cause, including the suggestion it was brought down with terrorists.
Rapidly emerging details painted a murky picture of what actually happened but but the claim that the plane sent a distress signal before it came down has now been confirmed.
"The investigating committee received satellite reports indicating receiving an electronic distress call from the plane's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT)," Egypt’s State Information Service said.
It follows reports that the search area for the plane has been narrowed to a three-mile radius, as search teams strive to find the plane's black boxes before their signal runs out.
The teams are waiting for a specialised ship designed to carry out deep water searches.
It has previously been reported that the plane's crew made verbal distress calls.
The captain, 37-year-old Mohamed Said Shoukair also reportedly had a conversation with Cairo air traffic for several minutes about the presence of smoke in the plane.
Claims that flight MS804 was brought down by a bomb have been dismissed as speculation.
Since the crash, there have been emerging and sometimes contradictory reports on how it happened, including on whether it swerved suddenly before it vanished from radar.
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