Search for EgyptAir enters second day
May 20, 2016, 9:18 am

EgyptAir resumed normal flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Friday [Xinhua]

At press time, the Egyptian military said it is investigating sighted debris in the Mediterranean 290 kms north of the coastal city of Alexandria for evidence it belongs to the downed plane.

The Airbus 320 flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared off radar at 02:48 local time Thursday, just 10 minutes after making contact with Greek traffic controllers.

It was flying at 37,000 feet and carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew when it was reported off radar just 16 kms into Egyptian airspace.

Early on Friday, there were conflicting reports that wreckage from the plane had been found near the Greek island of Karpathos, south of Crete.

But Greek officials said the debris cited in early reports did not belong to the missing Egyptian airliner.

France on Friday said it was dispatching aviation and forensics experts to Cairo to assist in an ongoing joint investigation to determine what happened to the airliner.

Both countries said they have not ruled out any possibilities, including terrorism.

Amid a tense news conference on Thursday, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy did not rule out terrorism as a possible cause of the crash. He told local Egyptian media that it was more likely a criminal act, rather than a technical problem, which downed the plane.

Egyptian investigators said they were looking at MS804’s ports of call – Eritrea and Tunisia – before it arrived in Paris Wednesday evening for possible suspicious activity.

Following the Paris attacks last November, French authorities revoked the high security clearances of some 70 staff who were suspected of having ties to radical Islamic groups.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies

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