Signs of possible wreckage were found Thursday off the Greek island of Crete in a search for an EgyptAir flight missing in the Mediterranean, a Greek military spokesman told AFP.
“There have been finds southeast of Crete, inside the Cairo flight information area,” general staff spokesman Vassilis Beletsiotis said, adding that an Egyptian C-130 plane had spotted the floating objects, and ships would be sent to investigate.
Greek state television ERT had earlier reported that debris had been spotted some 230 nautical miles (425 km) from Crete, about 100 nautical miles from the plane’s last known location.
EgyptAir Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo, which had 66 people on board, was last recorded some 130 nautical miles from the island of Karpathos, between Crete and Rhodes.
Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the plane fell 22,000 feet and swerved sharply in Egyptian airspace before it disappeared from radar screens.
“The plane carried out a 90-degree turn to the left and a 360-degree turn to the right, falling from 37,000 to 15,000 feet and the signal was lost at around 10,000 feet,” Panos Kammenos told a news conference.
Egypt’s aviation minister said on Thursday that a “terror” attack was a more probable explanation for the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight than technical failure.
“The possibility of having a different action onboard, of having a terror attack, it is higher than the possibility of having a technical” failure, Sherif Fathy told a news conference, adding that he still had no information on the plane’s fate.
No distress call was made.
(Feature Image Source: AFP)
