“When a plane crashes, an explosion takes place at some stage or another, reducing the plane to pieces”, another source said.
Advertisement
Egyptian state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram, citing aircraft logs signed by the pilot before takeoff, also reported that the plane showed no technical problems.
The third message came at 8.26 p.m. ET on May 18 and showed a rise in the temperature of the co-pilot’s window.
No distress call was received and Egyptian authorities have said the plane did not make contact with Egyptian air traffic control after passing out of Greek airspace shortly before crashing.
But Ehab Mohieldin Azmi, head of Egypt’s air navigation services, said Egyptian officials saw no sign of the plane swerving, and claimed it had been visible at 37,000 feet until it disappeared.
“In the case of the EgyptAir Flight MS804, we rule out the first two possibilities, because the plane crew was highly professional and there were no signs of climate changes that might force to alter the flight course”, said Gadel-Karim Nasr, former chairman of Egyptian Airports Company.
An Egyptian journalist lights candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804 in front of the Journalists’ Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
The cause of Thursday’s crash, which killed all 66 people aboard during a flight from Paris to Cairo, still has not been determined.
“The size of the remains points towards an explosion, the biggest part was the size of a palm”, the forensics official said, adding that about 23 bags of body parts had been collected since Sunday. But no evidence has emerged on the cause, and no militant group has claimed to have downed the jet.
The US Navy said on Tuesday it had not been asked for help.
The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – known as the black boxes – will provide crucial information about the plane’s final moments.
But Hisham Abdelhamid, head of Egypt’s forensics authority, said this assessment was “mere assumptions” and that it was too early to draw conclusions.
Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said immediately after the plane crashed that the airliner was more likely brought down in a terror attack rather than a technical malfunction.
An Egyptian forensic team was examining the remains of the victims for any traces of explosives, according to a team member and a second official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
Egypt’s investigative team said that the priority is to retrieve the black boxes and to recover more bodies.
What do you think caused the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804? Families of the victims arrived at the morgue in Cairo where the human remains are being analyzed to give DNA samples to help identify the remains.
Advertisement
Egyptian government and airline officials have promised to be transparent in the investigation into what happened to the plane.
