(Egypt): Searchers spotted the wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 804, which plunged into the Mediterranean Sea with 66 people onboard nearly one month ago, Egyptian authorities announced Wednesday.

The discovery came only days before the 30-day lifespan expired on the batteries for the emergency signals from the Airbus A320’s recorders in the May 19 crash.

A vessel contracted by the Egyptian government to join the search “identified several main locations of the wreckage" and the first images of the wreckage were provided to the investigation committee, the Associated Press reported. Searchers plan to map the wreckage's distribution on the seabed.

The French ship LaPlace detected pings from one of the plane's recorders about two weeks ago. The Egyptian government contracted with Deep Ocean Search to send the ship John Lethbridge to the scene with a remote-controlled underwater vehicle capable of scouring the ocean floor nearly 2 miles deep. The Comanche 6000 vehicle uses video cameras and limbs to sample and recover objects.

Recovering the voice and data recorders from the plane is key to figuring out whether a mechanical flaw, crew mistake or terrorism downed one of the world’s most popular airliners.

The crew didn’t issue any distress calls before the crash. An automated system onboard the plane sent messages that smoke was detected in several locations on the jet during its final minutes.

The cockpit-voice recorder would relay what pilots were saying to each other during the crisis, and perhaps give hints as to what controls were being adjusted. The flight-data recorder collects more than 1,000 streams of information about how the aircraft is functioning, such as how the engines are running and positions of wings flaps.

A key part of the investigation is whether the plane broke up before entering the water or as it struck the surface. Besides the recorders, the wreckage itself could offer clues about what happened.