A French Navy patrol boat is leaving its Mediterranean home port of Toulon to take part in the searches for traces of EgyptAir Flight 804 — and it is especially keen on helping to find the plane’s black boxes.

The 80-meter (262-foot) ship is equipped with sonar that can identify the sound of the underwater location beacons fitted to the crashed plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

The Navy says it will take two to three days for the vessel and its crew of 90 to arrive in the search area, which is roughly halfway between Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria and the Greek island of Crete.

It may take some time to find the recorders — the water is 8,000 to 10,000 feet (2,440 to 3,050 meters) deep in the area where the jet is thought to have gone down early Thursday as it carried 66 people from Paris to Cairo.

(AP)