Officials: EgyptAir black boxes detected

The Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry released a statement today saying that a French ship picked up "signals from the bottom of the sea in the search area [of the downed EgyptAir flight],” adding it is assumed to be from one of the plane's black boxes.

The ill-fated plane left Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 p.m. local time May 18 and lost contact with the radar tracking system over the Mediterranean Sea at 2:45 a.m., not far from its intended destination in Cairo, according to the airline.

The EgyptAir pilot made a 90-degree turn to the left and then a 360-degree maneuver as the plane plunged about 20,000 feet just before officials lost contact with it, officials said. Smoke was detected from within the doomed EgyptAir plane shortly before it disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, which experts believed likely pointed toward a mechanical failure.

Read More: Yahoo News