AviationSearch lead by Egypt's military finds plane wreckage north of Alexandria

Wreckage can be strewn over miles, as this U.K. crash site shows // Source: commons.wikimedia.org

An Egypt-led search has uncovered “wreckage” and “personal belongings of passengers.”

“Egyptian aircraft and navy vessels have found personal belongings of passengers and parts of the wreckage 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Alexandria,” Egyptian army spokesman Mohammed Samir in a statement published on Facebook. The Airbus A320 disappeared on Thursday after entering Egyptian airspace. The Telegraph reports that there were sixty-sixpeople on board the flight, including fifty-six passengers, seven crew members, and three security officers.

Following the army spokesman’s announcement, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi expressed his condolences to the victims’ relatives.

“The presidency with utmost sadness and regret mourns the victims on board the EgyptAir flight who were killed after the plane crashed in the Mediterranean on its way back to Cairo from Paris,” the presidency’s office said in a statement.

Greece’s defense minister said other objects were also found by the Egypt-led search operation, including a “body part.”

“A short while ago we were briefed by the Egyptian authorities … on the discovery of a body part, a seat and baggage just south of where the aircraft signal was lost,” said Defense Minister Panos Kammenos during a press briefing.

Earlier on Thursday, EgyptAir officials, relying on TV images, mistakenly claimed that debris discovered in the vicinity of where the aircraft disappeared was part of the A320.

“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,” airline Vice Chairman Ahmed Adel said at the time.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Friday cautioned against rushing to conclusions about the causes behind the aircraft’s disappearance.

“We’re looking at all possibilities, but none is being favored over the others because we have absolutely no indication on the causes,” Ayrault said.

Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy, however, late Thursday said the aircraft’s disappearance was likely to have been caused by a terrorist attack.

“The situation may indicate that the likelihood of a terrorist work is far higher than the likelihood that the plane developed a technical failure,” Fathy said.

Thursday’s even is but the latest in a troubling series of aviation crises in Egypt this past year, among them:

• March 2016: Sn Egyptian man hijacked a domestic EgyptAir flight and forced the aircraft to fly to Cyprus after threatening to blow up the plane, saying he was strapped with a suicide belt.
• October 2015: A Russian passenger flight departing from the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg was downed over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. The Sinai affiliate of ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.