Explosive traces on EgyptAir victims

Criminal investigation will be launched into the crash in which all 66 people on board died, Egyptian authorities say

CAIRO // Traces of explosives were found on some of the victims of the EgyptAir flight from Paris that crashed in the Mediterranean in May, Egypt’s government said yesterday.

The civil aviation ministry said a criminal investigation would be launched into the crash of Flight 804, in which all 66 people on board died.

The crash came seven months after a Russian passenger plane blew up over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 226 people on board.

Egypt has not officially said what caused the downing of the Russian plane, but a Sinai-based affiliate of ISIL said it blew it up with a bomb smuggled on board. Russia said the aircraft was probably brought down by explosives. No one has claimed to have brought down Flight 804.

France opened a manslaughter inquiry into the crash in June, but made clear it was an accident investigation, not a terrorism investigation.

An official at the office of Egypt’s top prosecutor said Egyptian criminal investiga- tors would now coordinate with their French counterparts.

Authorities said that before dawn on May 19, the Airbus A320 lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and plummeted 11,582 metres into the Mediterranean as it was approaching Egypt’s northern coast. The plane did not issue a distress call.

Experts suggested a passenger might have taken control of the plane or there may have been a struggle between the pilots, but three European security officials said the passenger manifest contained no names on terrorist watch lists.

Egyptian investigators said in July, after analysing the cockpit voice recorder, the Flight 804 pilots tried to extinguish a fire on the aircraft. The recordings were consistent with data previously recovered from the plane’s wreckage that showed heat, fire, and smoke around a bathroom and the avionics area, they said.

France’s accident investigation agency said smoke detectors went off during Flight 804’s final moments.

Industry publication Aviation Herald also reported that sensors detected smoke in the plane’s lavatory, as well as a fault in two of the plane’s cockpit windows in the final moments of the flight.

Hany Galal, an independent Egyptian aviation investigator, said yesterday’s findings explained the fact the pilots did not issue any distress calls and the aircraft’s erratic movements before it crashed.

No one has claimed to have brought down Flight 804