Body parts, seats and luggage have been found floating in the Mediterranean in the hunt for EgyptAir flight MS804, it emerged today.
The news will deal a devastating blow to relatives who are holding out a glimmer of hope their loved ones may have survived.
The Egyptian military said it discovered wreckage around 180 miles north of the coastal city of Alexandria and was sweeping the area for the plane’s black box recorders, which could solve the mystery of the crash.
Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said a body part, two seats and suitcases were found in the search area, slightly to the south of where the aircraft had vanished from radar signals early Thursday.
He said the location was slightly north of where some debris had been found on Thursday afternoon, but authorities had been unable to identify that as having come from the missing aircraft.
Egyptian President Adbel Fattah al-Sisi, meanwhile, offered condolences to families of those on board, amounting to Cairo’s official confirmation of their deaths.
Although fingers pointed towards Islamist militants who blew up another airliner over Egypt just seven months ago, no group had claimed responsibility more than 24 hours after the disappearance of flight MS804, an Airbus A320 that was flying from Paris to Cairo
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said yesterday that it was too early to rule out any explanation for the disaster, but the country’s aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure.
Friday’s announcement that debris had been found followed earlier confusion about whether wreckage had been located. Greek searchers found some material on Thursday, but the airline later said this was not from its plane.
While there was no official explanation of the cause of the crash, suspicion immediately fell on Islamist militants who have been fighting against Egypt’s government since Sisi toppled an elected Islamist leader in 2013.
In October, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian jetliner that exploded after taking off from an Egyptian tourist resort. Russian investigators blamed a bomb smuggled on board.
Meanwhile, heartbreaking details are beginning to emerge of the lives cut short on board the doomed flight.
EgyptAir Air hostess Samar Ezz Eldin
Air hostess Samar Ezz Eldin, 27, had uploaded a prophetic image of a plane crashing into the sea on her Facebook page in September 2014 just four months after she started working at Egypt’s national carrier.
It shows an air hostess dressed smartly in wet clothes pulling a carry-on suitcase out of the water as a passenger jet plunges into the sea behind her.
The 56 passengers on board included one Briton, 30 Egyptians, 15 French, one Belgian, one Iraqi, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi Arabian, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and at least one Canadian.
A Canadian woman among the passengers has also been named as Marwa Hamdy.
Other crew members included air-hostess Yara Hany, stewards Atef Lotfy and Haietham Elazizi and EgyptAir security officers Mahmoud Ahmed, Ahmed Mohamed Magdy and Mohamed Abd El Menem.
This is why I am an advocate of witchcraft instead of aircraft. I witchcraft, air mishap is zero except you are going for evil mission and God strikes you down . With witchcraft, you can go anywhere without stress.
Hahahahaa @Pedro