An EgyptAir plane en route from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people crashed into the Mediterranean Sea off the Greek island of Crete today with Egypt saying it was more likely caused by a terror attack than technical problems.
An Egyptian search plane located two orange items believed to be from the EgyptAir flight, southeast of Crete, a Greek military official said, adding that one of the items was oblong.
Greek state television ERT earlier reported that debris had been spotted some 425 km from Crete, about 100 nautical miles from the Airbus A320’s last known location.
Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi told a news conference that a “terror” attack was a more probable explanation for the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight than technical failure.
Asked whether a technical failure was behind the crash, Fathi said, “On the contrary...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.”
“We don’t deny the possibility of a terror attack or a technical error,” Fathi.
The plane was carrying 56 passengers — including three children — seven crew members and three security personnel.
Apart from 30 Egyptians, the plane was carrying 15 French passengers, two Iraqis and one each from Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.
Earlier, French President Francois Hollande confirmed that the EgyptAir Airbus A320 had “crashed”.
“We must ensure that we know everything on the causes of what happened. No hypothesis is ruled out or favoured,” he said in a televised address.
“Whether it was an accident or another hypothesis that everyone has on their mind — a terrorist hypothesis... at this stage we must focus on our solidarity with the families and the search for the causes of the catastrophe,” Hollande said.
Though nothing had been confirmed about the reasons for the crash both France and Egypt have come under attack from ISIS terror group in the past year.
Paris prosecutor’s office said its accident department had opened an investigation into the incident.
Greece’s Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the plane fell 22,000 feet and swerved sharply in Egyptian airspace before it disappeared from radar screens.
“The plane carried out a 90-degree turn to the left and a 360-degree turn to the right, falling from 37,000 to 15,000 feet and the signal was lost at around 10,000 feet,” Kammenos told a news conference.
However, Greek Aviation officials said earlier that air traffic controllers had spoken to the pilot a few minutes earlier and everything had appeared normal.