Meanwhile, Egypt is leading a multination effort to search for the plane’s black boxes, which include the flight data and cockpit voice recorders.
Advertisement
EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed in the Mediterranean on its way to Cairo from Paris, killing all on board including 30 Egyptians and 15 French people.
French investigators say that the plane sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board shortly before it disappeared.
Egyptian officials have previously said terrorism is a more likely explanation for the crash than a technical issue.
A submarine belonging to the Oil Ministry was headed to the site about 180 miles (290 kilometres) north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria to join the search, el-Sissi said.
Looking for clues to whether terrorists may have brought down the Airbus A320, investigators have been looking over the passenger list and have questioned ground crew members at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, from where the plane departed.
“Army.Spox/photos/pcb.833996286731355/833996210064696/?type=3&theater” target=”_blank”>images and video footage of Flight 804 debris that show an intact yellow life jacket lying beside wrecked seat cushioning, tattered clothes and EgyptAir-branded metal plane parts, quashing hopes of finding any survivors.
In the meantime, he said, “I tell Egyptian and foreign media not to rule out any hypotheses”.
The New York Post reports that after the flight vanished, an EgyptAir spokesman said there was a distress call from the aircraft, but the statement was later refuted by the Egyptian military and withdrawn by the airline.
“All scenarios are possible”, Sisi said at the opening of a fertilizer factory in Damietta, in northern Egypt. The signals indicated there was smoke in the front toilets near the cockpit, an expert said.
Greek civil aviation authorities say all appeared fine with the flight until air traffic controllers were to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts.
The Aviation Herald said that smoke detectors had gone off in the toilet and the aircraft’s electronics before the signal was lost.
“It is too long for an explosion and too short for a traditional fire”, said former A-320 pilot John Cox, president of the Washington- based consultancy Safety Operating Systems.
Nearly 70 people were on board.
Advertisement
EgyptAir has told relatives of the victims that recovering and identifying bodies from the sea could take weeks, adding to the pain and uncertainty of grieving families.
