Search for Black Boxes Resumes

A break in the weather allowed a Navy robot to return to the ocean floor Saturday to search for the “black boxes” that investigators hope will yield important clues about the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990.

On shore, relatives of the victims got their first glimpse of pieces of the plane’s wreckage at a former military base.

The Navy’s remote-controlled Deep Drone went back into the water Saturday afternoon after a shift in the wind calmed the sea with waves less than 8 feet--the upper limit for safely lowering the minivan-sized robot into the water.

“We’re back in full operation,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Navratil.

The Navy faced a narrow window in which the sea was expected to be calm enough for operations, because stronger wind gusts were forecast through the night. The next opportunity was not expected until Monday.

Navy crews had to raise the robot from the ocean bottom late Friday after waves rose to more than 10 feet, delaying efforts to locate and recover the airliner’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.

Information on the recorders could explain why the Boeing 767 heading from New York to Cairo plummeted into the sea last Sunday from 33,000 feet, killing 217 people, about 60 miles off the island of Nantucket. The flight originated in Los Angeles.

Families of the victims were granted their wish to see the plane’s wreckage Saturday at Quonset Point, a former Navy base across Narragansett Bay from the search command center in Newport.

About 180 to 200 of the relatives were taken to the site on buses and vans, an official said. Some stayed for just under an hour, and some stayed for a little more than two hours before returning to a hotel filled with floral arrangements and scores of sympathy cards.

Debris collected from the ocean was placed in one white tent the size of two warehouses.

Among the relatives were two brothers, Amr and Abdelmoneim Abdelmoneim, whose parents died in the crash. They said they had hoped to recover their parents’ bodies.

“From what we saw, I don’t expect we’re going to see any body,” Amr Abdelmoneim said through a translator. “It’s a very difficult feeling.”