France’s air accident investigation agency, the BEA, has confirmed the discovery of locator pings from one of two boxes onboard the aircraft, which crashed in the Mediterranean on May 19.

Egypt’s aviation ministry said the signals were picked up by French naval vessel, Laplace, but the department has not disclosed where the signals were identified and has yet to confirm that they came from the plane’s apparatus.

Authorities are hoping to use the device, which stores flight data and cockpit voice recordings, to determine what caused the Airbus A320 to crash en route from Paris to Cairo last month while carrying 66 people.

“A flight recorder signal has been picked up on equipment … deployed on the naval vessel Laplace,” said BEA director Rémi Jouty.

According to a statement from Egyptian authorities, Laplace, which is fitted with equipment to detect the locator pings, picked up the “signals from the seabed of the wreckage search area, assumed to be from one of the data recorders”.

It added that a second ship, the John Lethbridge, would also aid the search this week using a robot capable of diving up to 3,000 metres.

Since the accident, investigators have been searching for the black boxes, which contain enough battery life to power signals for up to five weeks, around 180 miles north of the Egyptian coast.

Prior to yesterday’s developments, France’s aviation safety agency said the aircraft had transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin minutes before losing contact.

The plane’s last known radar tracking saw the plane cruising normally before making a pair of sharp turns, spinning around and plummeting into the sea – a distress signal was never issued, the airline has said.

Since the crash, small fragments of wreckage and human remains have been recovered and are being tested by a forensic team in Cairo.