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Debris found in EgyptAir plane crash as U.S. officials eye bomb
| New York Daily News | - |
An
EgyptAir plane with 66 people aboard crashed during a flight from Paris
to Cairo early Thursday, France's president said. François Hollande
confirmed that the passenger plane carrying 66 people went down over the
Mediterranean Sea, but he did not ...
Debris found in Mediterranean Sea following EgyptAir plane crash as U.S. officials say bomb may have taken down jet
EgyptAir plane crashes over Mediterranean after taking off from Paris
NY Daily News
Greek investigators spotted debris from the plane — including two life jackets — floating in the Mediterranean Sea about 50 miles from where Flight MS804 vanished from radar early Thursday.
The wreckage was discovered roughly 17 hours after the plane carrying 66 people swerved wildly and vanished from radar about 175 miles off the Egyptian coast, the airline said.
U.S. officials told CNN they suspect that a bomb took down the plane. Investigators in Egypt and Greece have not confirmed that theory.
EgyptAir plane crashes over Mediterranean; terrorism probed
While the cause of the crash has not been determined, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said a terror attack was a likely explanation.
“If you thoroughly analyze the situation, the possibility of having a different action or a terror attack, is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure,” Fathy said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking Thursday afternoon, said the cause remains a mystery.
“It’s too early to definitively say what caused this disaster,” Earnest said.
An EgyptAir Airbus A320 crashed in the Mediterranean Sea Thursday.
(AP)Nothing seemed amiss when the pilot spoke to Greek air traffic controllers at 2:26 a.m.
But at 2:37 a.m., the plane began behaving erratically just after it entered Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean Sea.
The jet made a 90-degree turn to the left followed by a wide arc to the right. Then it plunged rapidly — descending from 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet, then to 9,000 feet, officials said.
The plane disappeared from radar at 2:45 a.m.
Adding to the mystery, the plane emitted a signal nearly two hours after the last radio contact. Officials told the New York Times it wasn’t clear whether the signal was an emergency call sent by a crew member or an automated signal from the plane’s onboard computers.
“We don’t know if the pilot had something to do with this or if it is just the plane sending it,” said Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry spokesman Ihab Raslan.
Of the 56 passengers on board, three were children. The plane was also carrying seven crew members and three airline security personnel.
The airline said that the flight was carrying 30 passengers from Egypt, 15 from France, two from Iraq and one each from Algeria, Belgium, Canada, Chad, Great Britain, Kuwait, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the downing of the jet.
French President François Hollande said all theories are being considered.
“No hypothesis was being ruled out,” Hollande told reporters.
“When we have the truth, we must draw all the conclusions, whether it is an accident or another hypothesis, which everybody has in mind: the terrorist hypothesis.”
President Obama was receiving frequent updates about the incident.
The EgyptAir plane was less than 200 miles from Egypt's coast when it went missing from radar.
(Maps4News via AP)Secretary of State Kerry offered his condolences to the victims and their loved ones. “Our thoughts are with them and all the passengers,” Kerry said.
Terrorists have seen success in taking down passenger planes over the last seven months.
Last year, ISIS terrorists said they used a bomb in a soda can to take down a Russian Metrojet plan flying from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to St. Petersburg. All 224 people on board were killed.
Earlier this year, a bomb on board a Somalian Daallo Airlines flight killed one person.
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