- Title: France, Britain offer help in EgyptAir crash investigation
- Date: 21st May 2016
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 21, 2016) (AGENCY POOL) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER JEAN-MARC AYRAULT ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) JEAN-MARC AYRAULT, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER, SAYING: "Ladies and gentlemen, this morning I received the families and loved ones of the passengers on EgyptAir flight MS804, first expressing in the name of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the whole government, of course, in my own name as well and together with (French Minister in charge of aid for victims) Juliette Merdel, our profound compassion, and solidarity at this particularly painful time that they are going through." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (French) JEAN-MARC AYRAULT, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER, SAYING: "I told them that France has put at the disposal of the Egyptian authorities all the means available to advance the search for the plane and the victims. Investigators from BEA (Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis) have already arrived in Cairo yesterday afternoon to take part in the investigation which has been opened by Egypt. We have also sent an aeroplane and a navy boat to take part in the search." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (French) JEAN-MARC AYRAULT, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER, SAYING: "Searching for the plane is obviously the priority today, as finding the black boxes so that they can be analysed which will allow us to answer the questions that are legitimately being posed."
- Embargoed: 5th June 2016 13:50
- Keywords: EgyptAir crash Jean-Marc Ayrault Philip Hammond
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE; LONDON. ENGLAND, UK
- Reuters ID: LVA0014IR1MPZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES TO SEPARATE SOUNDBITES
French and British foreign ministers made comments on Saturday (May 21) on the recent developments in the search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean to find the debris and locate the in-flight recorder of the EgyptAir flight that crashed about 290 km (180 miles) north of Alexandria with 66 people on board as it was heading from Paris to Cairo on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told a news conference in Paris that he met the families of the French passengers to offer condolences of the French government and the president and to assure them that the government was doing everything possible to assist in the investigation of the crash.
"I told them that France has put at the disposal of the Egyptian authorities all the means available to advance the search for the plane and the victims. Investigators from BEA (Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis) have already arrived in Cairo yesterday afternoon to take part in the investigation which has been opened by Egypt. We have also sent an aeroplane and a navy boat to take part in the search," Ayrault told the news conference.
"Searching for the plane is obviously the priority today, as finding the black boxes so that they can be analysed which will allow us to answer the questions that are legitimately being posed."
The urgency of finding the in-flight recorder was echoed by the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond who was campaigning in London on Saturday ahead of the forthcoming UK referendum on EU membership.
"The sooner we can get to the bottom of this and understand exactly what happened the sooner we can make sure, with our partners around the world, that we're taking necessary actions to keep people safe," Hammond told journalists adding that Britain has offered help to Egypt in the investigation.
A spokesman for the French BEA agency said on Saturday that the EgyptAir jet has sent a series of signals indicating that smoke had been detected on board before it crashed into the Mediterranean.
The signals did not indicate what caused the smoke or fire on board but offered the first clues as to what unfolded in the moments before the crash. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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