EgyptAir wreckage found terrorism may have caused crash

Date

5/22/2016 9:19:09 AM

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly)

Search teams in the Mediterranean have located wreckage of the EgyptAir jet that crashed into the sea as it approached Cairo on a flight from Paris. Egypt says terrorism is a more likely cause of the disaster than technical failure, but no definitive information is yet available.

The Airbus jet, with 66 people on board, disappeared from radar Thursday, moments after it entered Egyptian airspace on the four-hour flight from France.

In Cairo, Egyptian aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said France would be responsible for any security lapse if terrorism is found to be the cause of the crash. He also offered the theory that terrorism looms larger than mechanical problems as a possible cause of the crash.

“If it is proven that this was an act of sabotage, then we have to know and recognize that this plane originated from France and not from Egypt,” he said.

EgyptAir confirmed on Twitter that wreckage from the plane has been found near the Greek island of Karpathos. Search teams continue to look for other "remains of the missing plane." The United States sent a P-3 Orion long-range reconnaissance plane to join the search and recovery effort.

near Karpathos Island. EGYPTAIR sincerely conveys its deepest sorrow to the families and friends of the passengers onboard Flight MS804

— EGYPTAIR (EGYPTAIR)May 19, 2016

"We must ensure that we know everything on the causes of what happened. No hypothesis is ruled out or favored," President Francois Hollande said in Paris. He told reporters the French government was working with Egyptian and Greek authorities on the search mission.

Incommunicado

EgyptAir said it lost contact with the Airbus A320 plane at about 2:30 a.m., Cairo time, when the airliner was above 11,000 meters and just 16 kilometers inside Egyptian airspace.

Greek defense minister Panos Kamennos said the plane made sudden turns and a sharp descent before disappearing from the radar.

"It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360-degree turn toward the right, dropping from 38,000 (11,582 meters) to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet (3,048 meters),'' he said.

In the U.S., President Barack Obama was briefed on the latest developments at the White House. Spokesman Josh Earnest offered U.S. condolences over the disaster but stressed it is too early to say what caused the crash.

Plane's flight path

Victims' relatives await news

At the Cairo airport, anxious relatives of those on board gathered at the airport, anxiously awaiting news about their loved ones.

Aviation experts are warning against speculation, reiterating that at this point too little is known to draw any conclusions.

“I will say that when an airplane disappears at 37,000 feet it’s a highly unusual event," Scott Hamilton of Leeham Aviation Consultancy told VOA. "It either typically indicates a catastrophic failure, catastrophic emergency of some kind, or as we know from not too long ago, a bomb could go off ... But you just have to be cautious and not jump to any conclusions at this point.”

Hamilton explained that search teams "would be ultimately looking for the airplane's main records and black boxes."

Fred Burton of the U.S.-based global intelligence company Stratfor tweeted: "Mechanical failure at cruising altitude is unlikely. Such an event typically occurs at takeoff or landing."

Passenger info

Fifty-six passengers were on board, including one child and two infants, from France, Britain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada. No U.S. citizens were reported among the missing.

EgyptAir sent translators and doctors to the Cairo airport to meet with the passengers' families.

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