EgyptAir flight MS804 crash: Wreckage and passengers' belongings 'found' in search for missing aircraft

EgyptAir had backtracked on a previous announcement on Thursday evening

The crashed EgyptAir plane, an Airbus A320 registration SU-GCC, is seen here taking off from Vienna in August 2015 (AP)

Wreckage from EgyptAir flight MS804 has been found in the Mediterranean Sea alongside passengers’ belongings as investigations into the disaster continue.

EgyptAir said officials had been informed of the discovery on Friday morning during searches for the Airbus A320.

“The Egyptian Armed Forces have informed EgyptAir that they have found the first debris from the missing aircraft operating flight MS804 295km from the Egyptian coastline,” a statement said.

“EgyptAir sincerely conveys its deepest sorrow to the families and friends of the passengers on board.

It was EgyptAir's second announcement claiming to find wreckage (AP)

“We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected and have engaged international emergency support group Kenyon to assist with care for those touched by this tragedy.”

A spokesperson a the airline’s head offices in Cairo told The Independent the find was separate from previously recovered debris that was found to be unrelated.

“The statement yesterday was incorrect – there was a misunderstanding – but today in the morning they found the wreckage around 295km away from the coast at Alexandria,” she added.

“The information has just been confirmed.”

An aviation industry publication, meanwhile, reported that sensors detected smoke in a lavatory, suggesting a fire onboard before the aircraft went down.

The publication cited information transmitted through the plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which transmits data from the plane to the ground in the form of a series of messages. Those messages showed that smoke was detected in the plane's lavatory near the cockpit, according to the report.

The Egyptian army confirmed the discovery, saying the finds were being salvaged as search operations continued on Friday morning.

Brigadier General Mohammed Samir said Egyptian jets and naval vessels found “personal belongings of the passengers and parts of the plane's wreckage 290km (180 miles) north of Alexandria”.

More details emerged later in the day, with officials saying body parts, suitcases and plane seats had been recovered.

If the debris is confirmed as a part of the missing aircraft, it will be instrumental in investigations into the cause of the crash.

Authorities say nothing has been ruled out so far, including a possible terror attack, technical failure, hijack or sabotage.

Egypt's civil aviation minister said he believes the disaster was more likely to have been caused by a terror attack than technical failure.

“If you analyse the situation properly, the possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical (problem),” Sherif Fathy told a news conference.

EgyptAir made a previous announcement claiming part of the aircraft had been found on Thursday but backtracked after analysis indicated the debris was not from a plane.

The captain of a cargo ship that joined the search had shared photos claiming to show items from the missing plane on Facebook, while Greek television also published images.

Photos claiming to show debris from a crashed EgyptAir plane were posted on Facebook by a ship captain but the items were found to be unrelated (Tarek Wahba)

Athanassios Binis, head of Greece's Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board, told ERT TV “an assessment of the finds showed that they do not belong to an aircraft.”

EgyptAir announced the finding of wreckage at 6pm but its vice president, Ahmed Adel, later admitted that the company had been mistaken.

“We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane,“ he told CNN. ”So the search and rescue is still going on.“

The scheduled flight left Charles de Gaulle at 11.09pm on Wednesday (10.09 BST) and radar shows it continued on its normal path over Italy and Greece before starting to cross the Mediterranean.

The last signal was picked up by Greek air traffic control at 2.27am (1.27am BST) and the country’s civil aviation ministry said the pilot “did not respond” to contact attempts as the plane headed towards Egyptian airspace.

Egyptian authorities lost contact with the flight at around 2.30am (1.30am BST), 45 minutes before it was due to land at Cairo International Airport.

The Greek defence minister said the plane had been cruising at an altitude of 37,000ft when it started rapidly losing altitude, suddenly veering to the left and then making a full circle in the opposite direction immediately after it entered Egyptian airspace.

The aircraft dropped by 22,000ft to 15,000ft before contact was lost at around 10,000ft.

All 66 people on board are feared dead. They include 56 passengers, three security staff and seven crew members.

EgyptAir said 30 Egyptians, 15 French passengers, two Iraqis, and one passenger from Britain, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were on board.