The aircraft exited the Greek airspace, before suddenly disappearing from radar screens within Egyptian airspace at 03:29 a.m. according to the Greek authorities.
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The hunt is continuing for bodies and debris from the EgyptAir plane that fell out of the sky over the Mediterranean Sea as investigators try to determine whether the disaster was the work of terrorists.
What’s more, initial reports by the airline that the plane had sent a distress signal before it went missing proved false, and Pentagon officials said “a sensitive USA infrared satellite system hadn’t detected evidence of an explosion”, according to The Wall Street Journal. The government said two unidentified Canadian citizens were among passengers.
The search for the plane has centered on the area of the Mediterranean Sea between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian coast.
Greece’s defense minister said later Friday morning that the Egyptian forces had also seen a body part in the water, along with two seats and suitcases.
Speaking at a press conference, Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said he doesn’t believe the plane’s disappearance was a result of a “technical failure”.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has offered condolences for those aboard, amounting to Egypt’s official acknowledgment of their deaths.
Military search and rescue teams picked up an automated signal from the plane’s emergency beacon at 3.26am BST – around 80 minutes after it was supposed to land in Cairo. Only hours earlier, EgyptAir had said it was informed by the military that it detected a “distress calls” from the Airbus A320. “I will continue to use the term missing plane until we find any debris”.
French officials are being a bit more cautious.
Aviation expert Gerald Feldzer says the search area could hold clues to the cause of the crash.
However, on Friday, France’s foreign minister said there was still “absolutely no indication” about what had caused the crash in which all 66 passengers and crew are feared to have been killed. “(The evidence so far) leads us down the road to a deliberate act”, said CNN aviation analyst Miles O’Brien. The European Space Agency, combing through satellite data, said today that it had spotted a “potential oil slick” about 25 miles southeast of the plane’s last known location. The pilot had 2,766 flying hours; the aircraft was manufactured in 2003 and had routine maintenance checks carried out in Cairo on Wednesday. Egyptian officials said some arrived from Paris late Thursday, among them eight relatives of the 15 French passengers on board the missing jet.
According to Egyptian military spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Samir, passenger belongings and parts of Flight MS804 were found 290 km north of the coastal city of Alexandria.
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Ultra-hardline Islamists have targeted airports, airliners and tourist sites in Europe, Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern countries over the past few years.
