Investigators confident signals were those of crashed Air France jet from Rio to Paris

Signals appear those of crashed Air France jet

PARIS — A senior French aviation official says investigators are confident that signals detected last year following the crash of an Air France jet on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that killed 228 people were those of the Airbus airliner’s black boxes.

The head of the French accident investigation agency BEA says that investigators have confirmed findings by sonar specialists from the French company Thales and the French Defense Ministry announced last week.

Jean-Paul Troadec said that specialists continued to study the data from the initial search efforts, when the black box recorders were still emitting “pinging” signals. Technology used at the time did not allow researchers to pick up the signal.

He spoke at a news conference Monday.