EgyptAir flight MS804: Hunt goes on for wreckage of crashed plane carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo

Devastation: Relatives being led inside the airport
AP Photo/Amr Nabil
Mark Chandler19 May 2016

Debris found after an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared this morning did not come from the missing plane, officials say.

Flight MS804, which was carrying one Briton, disappeared from radar at 1.45am this morning, around 10 miles after it had entered Egyptian airspace, sparking fears of a terror attack.

EgyptAir had said this evening the plane's wreckage had been discovered near Karpathos Island, but later retracted the claim.

Ealier, the airline had said in a statement: "EgyptAir sincerely conveys its deepest sorrow to the families and friends of the passengers onboard Flight MS804.

"Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected.

"Meanwhile, the Egyptian Investigation Team in co-operation with the Greek counterpart are still searching for other remains of the missing plane."

But this evening EgyptAir's Vice Chairman Ahmed Adel told CNN that the debris was not from the flight.

He said: "We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane. So the search and rescue is still going on."

Egyptian military aircraft and navy ships were scrambled to take part in a search operation off Egypt's Mediterranean coast to locate passengers and debris from the plane.

Britain has also offered help to Egypt after it was confirmed a UK national was on board the stricken aircraft, along with 10 crew members and 56 passengers, including one child and two babies.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters: "We know that there's a British passport holder on board, who got onto the plane in Paris.

"We have offered assistance to the Egyptian authorities but so far we have not had any requests for support."

Egypt's civil aviation minister has said the possibility that a terror attack caused flight MS804 to crash was "stronger" than that of a technical failure.

But, speaking earlier, Jean-Paul Troadec, former chief of France’s air accident investigation unit, said the disaster was almost certainly caused by "an attack".

Mr Troadec said the plane’s failure to issue an emergency alert suggested a "brutal event".

Meanwhile, the country's chief prosecutor Nabil Sadek said he had ordered an urgent investigation into the disaster.

Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted an airport official as saying the pilot did not send a distress call, and that last contact with the plane was made 10 minutes before it disappeared from radar.

French president Francois Hollande spoke with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on the phone and agreed to "closely co-operate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances", according to a statement issued in Paris.

Airbus said the aircraft was delivered to EgyptAir in 2003 and had logged 48,000 flight hours before it was lost over the Mediterranean.

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