Egypt: Traces of explosives found on victims of Paris flight

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 would now co-ordinate with their French counterparts. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Authorities have said that before dawn on May 19, the Airbus A320 lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and plummeted 38,000 feet (11,582 metres) into the Mediterranean as it was approaching Egypt’s northern coast. The plane never issued a distress call.

Experts have suggested a rogue passenger might have taken control of the plane or that there may have been a struggle between the pilots.

But three European security officials said at the time that the flight’s passenger manifest contained no known names on terror watch lists, often used by European and American security and law enforcement agencies.

Egyptian investigators said in July after analyzing a recovered cockpit voice recorder that the pilots of Flight 804 tried to extinguish a fire on board the aircraft. The recordings were consistent with data that had previously been 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 has said that smoke detectors went off during Flight 804’s final moments.

Industry publication Aviation Herald also has 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.

Egyptian independent aviation investigator Hany Galal said Thursday’s findings explain the fact that the pilots did not issue any distress calls and the aircraft’s erratic movements before it crashed.

IS has carried out several attacks in recent years, mainly in the Sinai, where it is based, but also on the Egyptian mainland. The group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Cairo church on Sunday, which killed at least 24 people, mainly women, and wounded nearly 50.

In recent months Egypt has spent millions of dollars trying to restore international confidence in its airport security measures. Russia had suspended all flights to Egypt after the October crash, while Britain cancelled flights to Sharm El-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort from which the airliner took off.

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Associated Press writer Sam Magdy contributed to this report.

Hamza Hendawi, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Egypt: Traces of explosives found on victims of Paris flight

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