Cairo: Early indications, including the the sudden swerving of EgyptAir Flight 804 point more to a bomb than to a structural or mechanical failure that led the crash, air transport safety experts said.
EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo, carrying 66 people, crashed early Thursday into the Mediterranean Sea off the Greek island of Crete.
John Goglia, a former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member, said abrupt turns without distress calls from the pilot point more to a bomb, rather than to a structural or mechanical failure for EgyptAir Flight 804.
Goglia says "given the fact that (the pilot) made those abrupt turns without broadcasting any maydays would indicate to me that something catastrophic like a device happened."
EgyptAir Flight 804: What we know
'Terror attack more likely'
He says a mechanical failure "still has to be considered, but at this point I would put that down pretty low." He likewise says that a structural failure, like a piece of the airplane's aluminum skin ripping away from metal fatigue, is possible but unlikely.
He says "the recorders will tell us," referring to the black boxes, the plane's flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders that are a key part of nearly every crash investigation.
Mystery surrounds Flight 804
EgyptAir said on Friday no debris or wreckage had been found while the Pentagon said they have no indication of an explosion on the plane that “plunged 22,000ft into the sea with 66 on board”. EgyptAir’s Vice President said MS804 wreckage has not been found, adding: “We stand corrected.”
Airline initially confirmed wreckage had been found off Greek islands, but has now retracted that confirmation.
Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Frence foreign minister, on Friday refused to draw conclusions about the cause of the crash, despite the Egyptian authorities already saying it was likely to have been a terrorist attack.
“We’re looking at all possibilities, but none is being favoured over the others because we have absolutely no indication on the causes (of the crash),” Jean-Marc Ayrault told French television, according to AFP. The French government will meet families of the victims on Saturday in order to “provide all the information we can,” Ayrault said.
Swerving
Egypt's former civil aviation minister says that if it's confirmed the EgyptAir plane swerved before it crashed, this means that "something happened that forced the pilots to lose control over the plane."
Hossam Kamal told The Associated Press that the debris from the plane and the black box, if recovered, could help uncover "what happened that forced the pilot to lose control."
He spoke on Thursday after authorities said that the jetliner bound from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard had made a mysterious series of extremely abrupt turns before crashing into the Mediterranean Sea. Kamal says passenger planes are not designed to make a 360-degree swerves while in flight and that something like that is "disproportionate" to a passenger plane's design. He says that "these are not warplanes."
Structural failure ‘improbable’
A retired weapons developer says it looks increasingly unlikely that a structural failure is behind the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804. Retired Maj. Gen. Robert Latiff, an expert on aerospace systems and emerging weapons technologies at the University of Notre Dame, says while it's too early to tell for certain, a structural failure for the Airbus A320 plane is "vanishingly improbable."
He says "a plane in straight and level flight at 37,000 feet is a pretty benign situation." Latiff says "sabotage is possible, and if there were lax controls at airports and loose hiring and security policies, increasingly likely."
Dual citizen
Australia's foreign affairs ministry says the Briton presumed dead after an EgyptAir flight crashed into the Mediterranean is a dual citizen of Australia.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop in a news release Friday declined to give additional details, including details on the passenger's identity.
Conflicting reports
The ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee says there are conflicting reports about the conduct of the EgyptAir plane during its last minutes of flight, and there is nothing yet to confirm whether terrorism, structural failure or something else is the cause.
"We are looking through our intelligence collections to figure out if we have any images. Do we have any signals intelligence that reveals a discussion of a plot like this? California Rep. Adam Schiff told The Associated Press.
"We're working with the French to try to figure out is there any information we have that could shed light on any of the passengers, but there's nothing yet to confirm the cause of the plane crash." he said.
He said the plane did seem to have broken apart in midair but the reason was unclear.
No debris
A senior Greek air safety official says the debris found so far in the Mediterranean Sea does not belong to an aircraft. Authorities have been scouring a wide area south of Crete to look for plane debris.
Athanassios Binis, head of Greece's Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board, told state ERT TV that "an assessment of the finds showed that they do not belong to an aircraft." He says Thursday this has been confirmed by Egyptian authorities.
Greek military officials say a Greek C-130 military transport plane is still participating in the search for debris from the EgyptAir jet, but a frigate initially sent to the area has been recalled. The same officials say all potential debris located so far in the sea has been spotted by Egyptian aircraft.
Two Canadians
Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion says two Canadians were on EgyptAir Flight 804, which crashed into the Mediterranean as it carried 66 passengers and crew from Paris to Cairo.
Dion says officials are providing consular assistance to the victims' families and Canadian officials are working with authorities to confirm whether there were any additional Canadians on board.
The Airbus A320 crashed early Thursday. Egypt's Civil Aviation ministry says "floating material," including life jackets and plastic items, have been found in the sea off the Greek island of Karpathos, close to the suspected site of the plane crash.
Technical experts
France's BEA, or Accident Investigating Bureau which probes aircraft disasters, was sending a team of three investigators to Cairo, accompanied by a technical expert from Airbus, maker of the EgyptAir A320 plane that has crashed into the Mediterranean.
The BEA said the team was leaving on Thursday night. In a statement, it said "the BEA could notably counsel Egyptian authorities on the organization of an underwater search to locate the plane and the black boxes."
The BEA said it was taking part in the probe as a representative of the country where the plane was conceived. Airbus, based in Toulouse, has said it was sending a technical expert and could send more if needed.
Too early to say
The White House says it's too early to say definitively what caused an EgyptAir flight to crash into the Mediterranean Sea. White House spokesman Josh Earnest says investigators will consider all factors and possibilities. He says nothing has been ruled in or out. Earnest says the U.S. is ready to help with the investigation and that the U.S. Navy is working to deploy a P-3 Orion aircraft in the search.
The White House says President Barack Obama is getting multiple updates about the crash. Earnest says the president is sending his prayers to families of those on the place. Earnest says U.S. national security and aviation experts are in contact with their counterparts in France and Egypt to offer assistance.
Floating material
Egypt's Civil Aviation ministry says in a statement that "floating material," including life jackets and plastic items, have been found in the sea off the Greek island of Karpathos, close to the suspected site of the EgyptAir plane crash.
The ministry says it is coordinating with Greek counterparts to examine what they have found and to determine whether the items could be part of the debris from the plane that crashed before dawn on Thursday while carrying 66 passengers and crew.
P&G
Procter & Gamble Co. says one of its employees was aboard the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. The consumer products maker identified him as Ahmed Helal, manager of its plant in Amiens, France. He had held a variety of manager positions since joining P&G in his native Egypt in 2000. His LinkedIn profile says he earned a mechanical engineering degree from The American University in Cairo in 1999. P&G spokesman Damon Jones says "we are in touch with the employee's family and are offering them our full support during this difficult time." The Cincinnati-based company makes products such as Tide detergent and Pampers diapers.
Condolences
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expressing his "condolences to Egypt and to all other countries" affected by the disappearance of EgyptAir 804 over the Mediterranean. Speaking Thursday at NATO headquarters outside of Brussels, Kerry says "the United States is providing assistance in the search effort and relevant authorities are doing everything they can to try to determine what the facts are of what happened." Kerry refused to speculate on the cause of the crash and insisted he and other authorities did not know it yet. He says "but we certainly extend our condolences to each and every country that has lost people and particularly to Egypt."
Two more victims
Egyptian airport officials have identified two more victims from the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean. They say that the sister-in-law of Hisham el-Maqawad, the deputy to the Egyptian ambassador in Paris, and Sahar al-Khawaga, a Saudi woman who works at the Saudi Embassy in Cairo, are among the victims of Thursday's plane crash. They say that al-Khawaga, who has worked at the diplomatic mission in the Egyptian capital for 13 years, was in Paris to follow up on her daughter's medical treatment there. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.
