Egypt: Traces of explosives found on Paris flight victims

CAIRO — Traces of explosives have been found on some of the victims of an EgyptAir flight from Paris that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea in May, Egypt’s government said Thursday, a finding that could deal another major blow to the country’s vital tourism sector.

A Civil Aviation Ministry statement said a criminal investigation will be launched into the crash of Flight 804, which killed all 66 people on board and came just seven months after a Russian passenger plane was blown up over the Sinai Peninsula in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

That attack, which killed all 226 people on board in October 2015, led to widespread flight cancellations and emptied out Egypt’s Red Sea resorts. Tourism has been sharply down in much of the rest of the country following years of unrest unleashed by the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt has never officially said what caused the downing of the Russian plane. But a local Islamic State affiliate said it blew up the plane with a bomb smuggled on board, and Russia said the aircraft was likely downed 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 investigators will coordinate with their French counterparts.

Authorities have said that early on May 19, the Airbus A320 lurched left, then right, spun around and plummeted 38,000 feet into the Mediterranean as it was approaching Egypt’s coast. The plane never issued a distress call.