Cairo: A French vessel has picked up signals believed to be coming from the black boxes of the ill-fated EgyptAir plane en route from Paris to Cairo, which crashed last month killing all 66 people on board, authorities said yesterday, raising hopes of finding the cause of the disaster.

“The signal from a beacon from a flight recorder has been detecte” by navy vessel Laplace, said Remi Jouty of France's Bureau of Investigations and Analysis, following an announcement from Egyptian authorities that the signal had probably been picked up.