Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority has reported that the French vessel Laplace has located pings presumed to originate from one of two black boxes says Aviation Herald.

Another vessel the John Lethbridge is estimated to join the search in a week in order to retrieve the blackbox(es).

According to Aviation Herald the search for the second pinger continues.

In a dramatic development French broadcaster France 3 reports that the plane that crashed did three emergency landings in the 24 hours before the crash.

The report has yet to be confirmed by government or airspace authorities.

The A320 used for the EgyptAir flight MS804 connecting Paris to Cairo reportedly had to turn around three times and perform emergency landings on each occasion, while travelling between Eritrea, Egypt, Tunisia, and Paris.

Shortly after taking off, emergency signals indicating a problem onboard went off, prompting the plane to turn around, France 3 reports.