EgyptAir flight MS804: Human remains, belongings found from crash at sea

Egypt said on Friday its navy had found human remains, wreckage and the personal belongings of passengers floating in the Mediterranean, the first confirmation that an EgyptAir jet with 66 people on board had plunged into the sea.

some of the passengers' belongings, human remains, and plane seats," the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered condolences for those on board.

The navy was searching an area about 290 km north of Alexandria, just south of where the signal from the plane was lost early on Thursday. There was no sign of the bulk of the wreckage, or of a location signal from the "black box" flight recorders that are likely to provide the best clues to the cause of the crash.

EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Moslem told state television that the radius of the search zone was 40 miles, giving an area of 5,000 square miles, but said it may be expanded. A European satellite spotted a 2 km-long oil slick in the Mediterranean, about 40 km southeast of the aircraft's last known position, the European Space Agency said. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any cause for the crash. The aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure, but offered no evidence.

The flight path of EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo is seen on a flight tracking screen May 19, 2016.

DATA INDICATES SMOKE ALERTS

Although early suspicion centred on Islamist militants who blew up another airliner over Egypt seven months ago, no group had claimed responsibility more than 36 hours after the disappearance of flight MS804, an Airbus A320. CNN reported on Friday that flight data, from an automatic system called the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), said smoke alerts were triggered aboard the EgyptAir jet shortly before it crashed.

ACARS routinely downloads flight data to the airline operating the aircraft. Two US officials said they could not confirm CNN's report. But they said an electronic sensor system had detected some kind of disturbance outside the jet around the time investigators believe it began falling from cruising altitude.

One of the officials said the disturbance outside the aircraft may have been caused by its sudden and rapid breakup, but it also could have been generated by some kind of mechanical fault or accident or a possible explosion or attack. The officials asked for anonymity when speaking about the still-evolving investigation.

A screen grab of the flight data transmitted by ACARS to operators on the ground, published on the website of the aviation journal AVHerald.com, indicated failures in the jet's flight control system and alerts related to smoke in a lavatory and the avionics system, minutes before the crash. The screen grab provided on the website showed only very terse messages sent from the aircraft, such as "SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE," "AVIONICS SMOKE" and "F/CTRL SEC 3 FAULT."

The US officials said they could not confirm the authenticity the data, however, and EgyptAir officials could not be reached for immediate comment. Jihadists have been fighting Egypt's government since Sisi toppled an elected Islamist leader in 2013.

An Egyptian military search boat takes part in a search operation for the EgyptAir plane that disappeared in the Mediterranea. Credit: Reuters
 

In October, the Islamic State (ISIS) group claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian airliner that exploded after taking off from an Egyptian tourist resort. Russian investigators blamed a bomb smuggled on board. That crash devastated Egypt's tourist industry, one of the main sources of foreign exchange for a country of 80 million people, and another similar attack would crush hopes of it recovering.

The plane vanished just as it was moving from Greek to Egyptian airspace control. Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said it had swerved radically and plunged from 37,000 feet to 15,000 before vanishing from Greek radar screens.

Officials from a number of US agencies said that a US review of satellite imagery so far had not produced any signs of an explosion. They said the United States (US) had not ruled out any possible causes for the crash, including mechanical failure, terrorism or a deliberate act by the pilot or crew.

An image taken by satellite Sentinel-1A on May 19, 2016 shows a a potential oil slick in the area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Credit: Reuters
 

FAMILY OF PILOTS

Hardline Islamists have targeted airports, airliners and tourist sites in Europe, Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern countries over the past few years. Khaled al-Gameel, head of crew at EgyptAir, said the pilot, Mahamed Saeed Ali Shouqair, had 15 years' experience and was in charge of training and mentoring younger pilots.

"He comes from a pilot family; his uncle was a high-ranking pilot at EgyptAir and his cousin is also a pilot," Gameel said. "He was very popular and was known for taking it upon himself to settle disputes any two colleagues were having." A Facebook page that appeared to be Shouqair's included criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood, repostings of articles supporting President Sisi and pictures of Shouqair wearing aviator sunglasses.

Two former senior crash investigators said the list of possible causes remained wide open and noted there had been cases where deliberate action had been suspected wrongly.

In 1996, a terrorism probe was launched after a TWA jumbo jet crashed off Long Island, New York, on the east coast of the United States, but investigators later found it had probably been brought down by a fuel tank explosion.