New technology being used by officials trying to locate the whereabouts of an Air France jet which crashed into the sea last year, killing everyone on board, suggests that the aircraft may have performed a u-turn before the accident. New analysis of the pinging signals given off by the jet’s black-box flight recorders indicates that the airplane may have doubled back on itself.

The tentative conclusion has been reached because the plane is in a different location to the one which was last reported to air traffic controllers. Jean-Paul Troadec, head of BEA, the French accident investigation agency, said that sonar experts have continued to analyse the data retrieved from the original search, when the black-boxes were still emitting their pings.

Subsequently, the search area has been narrowed down. It now measures an area 20 kilometers long by 10 kilometers wide. Most of this area has already been searched, and Troadac said that the remains of the jet could be found as early as the middle of the week.

Troadac said that submarine drones would try to locate any wreckage first, and then scour the area for the flight recorders. The recorders are the key to understanding what happened to Flight 447, which was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, when air traffic controllers lost contact.

Robert Soulas, who lost his daughter and his son-in-law on the fateful flight, said that the news that the search might soon be over was encouraging. He said that he and other relatives of those on board might now be able to learn the truth about what happened.