Expert suggests explosion brought down EgyptAir jet

Remains recovered from crash have signs of burns.

Body parts recovered from the crash of Egypt- Air 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 dismissed by the head of Egypt’s forensic agency as “baseless” speculation.

The cause of Thursday’s crash of the EgyptAir jet fly- ing from Paris to Cairo that killed all 66 people aboard has not been determined. Ships and planes from Egypt,

France, the United States and other nations are searching the Mediterranean north of the Egyptian port Alexandria for the jet’s

and flight data recorders and parts of the aircraft. Egypt’s civil aviation min-

has said he believes terrorism is a more likely

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. 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.

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.

The forensic official, who examined the re ma i ns, 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.”

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.”