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| An Egyptian journalist lights candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804 in front of the Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, May 24, 2016. The cause of Thursday’s crash of the EgyptAir jet flying from Paris to Cairo that killed all 66 people aboard still has not been determined. Ships and planes from Egypt, Greece, France, the United States and other nations are searching the Mediterranean Sea north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria for the jet’s voice and flight data recorders. |
CAIRO
(AP) -- Body parts recovered from the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804
showed signs of burns and were so small that they suggested the jet was
brought down by an explosion, a member of the team examining the remains
said Tuesday. But the idea of a blast was promptly dismissed by the
head of Egypt's forensic agency as "baseless" speculation.
The
cause of Thursday's crash of the EgyptAir jet flying from Paris to
Cairo that killed all 66 people aboard still has not been determined.
Ships and planes from Egypt, Greece, France, the United States and other
nations are searching the Mediterranean Sea north of the Egyptian port
of Alexandria for the jet's voice and flight data recorders, as well as
more bodies and parts of the aircraft.
Egypt's
civil aviation minister has said he believes terrorism is a more likely
explanation than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event.
But no hard evidence has emerged on the cause, and no militant group has
claimed to have downed the jet. Leaked flight data indicated a sensor
detected smoke in a lavatory and a fault in two of the plane's cockpit
windows in the final moments of the flight.
An
Egyptian forensic team was examining the remains of the victims for any
traces of explosives, according to a team member and a second official,
both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to talk to reporters.
The team
member said the fact that all 80 body parts recovered so far were very
small and that some showed signs of burns suggested an explosion.
"There isn't even a whole body part, like an arm or a head," said the forensic official, who examined the remains.
He
said at least one part of an arm has signs of burns - an indication it
might have "belonged to a passenger sitting next to the explosion."
"The
logical explanation is that an explosion brought it down," he said,
adding that if there was a blast, the cause was not known.
But
Hisham Abdel-Hamid, head of the Egyptian government's forensic agency,
dismissed the suggestion, telling the state-run MENA news agency:
"Whatever has been published is baseless and mere assumptions."
France's
aviation accident investigation agency would not comment on anything
involving the bodies or say whether any information has surfaced to
indicate an explosion.
Other experts were divided on whether the state of the remains necessarily suggested an explosion.
Philip
Butterworth-Hayes, an aviation systems expert, said such damage was
unlikely if the plane was intact when it hit the water.
"Normally
an impact is not going to do that to a human body in a seat belt," he
said, adding that in some aircraft hit the water, bodies are found
relatively intact.
"Normally the human frame
can withstand quite severe deceleration, which is what happens when a
plane hits the water," Butterworth-Hayes said.
But
David Learmount, a consulting editor at the aviation news website
Flightglobal, said a water impact could have such a devastating effect
on those in the plane.
"Hitting water after a fall from that height is like hitting a cliff face," he said.
There also have been contradictory reports over the last moments of Flight 804.
Greece's
defense minister said radar showed the aircraft turned 90 degrees left,
then a full 360 degrees to the right, plummeting from 38,000 feet
(11,582 meters) to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) before disappearing at
about 10,000 feet (3,048 meters).
But the head
of Egypt's state-run provider of air navigation services denied that,
saying the plane did not swerve or lose altitude and disappeared from
radar while at its normal altitude of 37,000 feet.
A
Greek military official insisted that all radar data available to Greek
authorities showed the plane swerving and losing altitude. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk
to reporters.
Egypt's investigative team said
18 batches of wreckage have been brought to Cairo's criminal
investigation units for examination.
It added
that priority was to locate the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -
the so-called "black boxes" - and to retrieve more bodies.
A
French patrol boat is carrying a doctor to help with the search for
remains. Anything it finds would first be reported to Egyptian
authorities and French justice officials, the French Navy said.
Relatives
of the victims were giving DNA samples to the forensic team in Cairo to
help identify the remains, a security official said. The official also
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to
reporters.
