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Greek authorities find crashed EgyptAir plane debris: Egyptian civil aviation ministry
Greece will scale back search and rescue assets to find a missing EgyptAir airliner after objects thought to be from the aircraft were found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction.
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Greek authorities have found “floating material” that is likely to be debris from the EgyptAir plane that crashed over the Mediterranean on Thursday, the Egyptian civil aviation ministry said in a statement.
Egypt’s envoy to France said Greek authorities had informed his counterpart in Athens that they had found blue and white debris as part of its search for a missing EgyptAir plane.
“All I will say is that our embassy in Athens told us that it was contacted by Greek authorities who signalled that they found white and blue debris corresponding to EgyptAir’s colours,” Ehab Badawy told BFM television.
“I can’t confirm it is the debris, but it would be reasonable to think it is the debris of this plane,” he said.
Greece to scale back EgyptAir search
Greece will scale back search and rescue assets to find a missing EgyptAir airliner after objects thought to be from the aircraft were found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction, two Greek government sources said on Thursday.
Greece had deployed a frigate and air assets to the area south of the island of Karpathos after the airliner with 66 people on board dropped off radars overnight in Egyptian airspace minutes after leaving Greek airspace. A transport aircraft would remain in the area.
Pieces of plastic and two lifejackets were found in the sea area about 230 miles (370 km) south of Crete. It was all found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction, a Greek defence source said.
Greek authorities earlier reported the aircraft took a sharp 90 degree turn left, and then spun 360 degrees in the opposite direction as it plunged from cruising altitude of 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet before disappearing off radars.
Terrorism suspectedÂ
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation, including an attack like the one blamed for bringing down a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last year.
The country’s aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure.
A Greek military official says an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight. T.J. Yeldon Jersey
