As rescue teams continue to comb the Mediterranean Sea in search of missing Egyptian airplane, Egyptian authorities say they suspect terrorist sabotage as the most likely cause of the EgyptAir Flight MS804 crash, which occurred yesterday.
According to the Guardian, Egypt says the crash may have been a terror attack but they are not ruling out other possibilities like mechanical faults and bad weather.
“The possibility of having a different action or a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure,” Egyptian minister for aviation Sherif Fathi told the Guardian.
The MS804 air flight, from France en route to Egypt, went missing on Thursday and authorities suspect it may have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea with 66 people onboard.
Speaking after the news of the disappearance, French President Francois Hollande said they had gathered information that the plane may have crashed and are collaborating with Egyptian authorities to find the cause of the crash.
“The information we have gathered confirms, alas, that this plane has crashed and it has disappeared. We have a duty to know everything about the cause and what has happened,” the French President was quoted by the Guardian.
EgyptAir officials have already retracted their earlier claim that the debris spotted floating in the sea south of the Greek island of Karpathos was part of the missing plane. Speaking to CNN this morning, the airline’s vice-president, Ahmed Adel, said:
“We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane.”
EgypAir Flight MS804 is reported to have made a 90-degree swerve to the left and a 360-degree turn before it went missing. On board were 56 passengers from ten different countries, but predominantly Egypt, and 10 crew and security officers.
Rescue Mission Underway
According to CNN, rescue personnel from Egypt, France, Greek, and US have already been deployed in the Mediterranean Sea to assist in the search of the missing EgyptAir Flight MS804.
A Greek Hellenic National Defense General Staff told CNN that the search is concentrated in the area where the plane was last spotted on the radar, which is 130 nautical miles southeast of Karpathos.
As the search and rescue mission continues, relatives of the people on board have gathered in airports in Cairo and Paris hoping to know the fate of their loved ones.
CNN also reports that maintenance checks on EgyptAir Flight MS804 had been done promptly and no hitches were reported.
