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The Egyptian Army says it has found wreckage of the missing EgyptAir Flight 804, which crashed after disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea Thursday.
The navy has also found some of the passengers’ belongings and is sweeping the area looking for the plane’s black box, the military said in a statement.
Search teams have been scouring the Mediterranean Sea for the remains of the plane, which disappeared with 66 people on board yesterday.
The office of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a statement offering the President’s condolences to the families of those on board.
“The presidency with utmost sadness and regret mourns the victims on aboard the EgyptAir flight who were killed after the plane crashed in the Mediterranean on its way back to Cairo from Paris,” the statement read.
The discovery comes after debris found floating off a Greek island turned out to be unrelated to the crashed plane.
In a Facebook post, EgyptAir also confirmed debris had been found and offered its condolences to friends and families of those onboard.
“EgyptAir sincerely conveys its deepest sorrow to the families and friends of the passengers onboard Flight MS804,” the Facebook statement said.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected and have engaged international emergency support group Kenyon to assist with care for those touched by this tragedy.”
The cause of the plane’s disappearance is still unknown, but Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said the possibility of the plane being brought down by a terror attack “is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure,” the AP reports.
The plane swerved wildly before going off the radar, said Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, according to the wire service. He said the plane “made a 90-degree left turn, then a full 360-degree turn to the right,” before plummeting out of the sky, the AP reported. It added:
“Its erratic course suggested a number of possible explanations, including a catastrophic mechanical or structural failure, a bombing, or a struggle over the controls with a hijacker in the cockpit.”
Fathy confirmed that no distress signal had come from the plane, as the Two-Way reported.
Alexander Bortnikov, chief of Russia’s top domestic security agency, was quoted by the AP as saying: “In all likelihood it was a terror attack.”
However, no militant groups have claimed responsibility so far.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement Thursday evening that the cause of the plane’s disappearance is still unknown.
“At this time we do not yet know definitively what caused the disappearance of Flight 804,” he said. “The United States stands ready to provide our full support and resources to the Governments of Egypt and France as they investigate this incident.”
Weather conditions were clear at the time of the plane’s disappearance, Reuters reported.
Agencies/Canadajournal
