Egypt rejects report that crash evidence points to explosion
The chief of Egypt's forensics authority denied reports Tuesday that an initial examination of human remains from doomed EgyptAir Flight 804 pointed to an explosion, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.
“Everything published about this matter is completely false and mere assumptions that did not come from the forensics authority,” MENA quoted Hesham Abdelhamid as saying in a statement.
Earlier Tuesday, an Egyptian forensic official said analysis of human remains retrieved from the crash site suggest an explosion may have brought down the aircraft, the Associated Press reported.
The conflicting reports emerged as search teams scoured the Mediterranean Sea, racing the clock in search of the plane's voice and data recorders before their signal batteries die in about 30 days.
Egyptian military forces have found debris, including body parts, from the missing plane 180 miles from the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria. Photographs released by the Egyptian Army show little remains of the devastation — just mangled bits of debris, tattered clothing and a life vest, among other objects.
AP said the forensic official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information, personally examined the remains at a morgue in Cairo. He said all 80 pieces of remains were small and didn’t comprise whole body parts, leading him to believe an explosion was the logical explanation.
Smoke detected on EgyptAir plane before crash
No traces of explosives have been detected by investigators, Reuters reported. French investigators say an automated system sent messages indicating smoke was detected in multiple spots on the plane minutes before the Airbus 320 crashed en route from Paris to Cairo on Thursday, killing all 66 people on board.
The Egyptian investigation committee issued a statement Tuesday saying the Egyptian Armed Forces Search and Rescue Center is coordinating the search. "Up to 18 groups of the plane wreckage" were moved to criminal investigation laboratories in Cairo, and DNA tests are underway, the committee said. Family members of the victims are providing DNA samples for matching purposes.
The committee said a thorough study of radar images, flight path data and the jet's maintenance records is underway.
"The Egyptian investigation team, in cooperation with French investigators, are studying all aspects of the probe, giving high priority to recovering the bodies of the victims and specifying the site of the two black boxes," the statement said.