EgyptAir flight 804 human remains suggest explosion on board, Egyptian official reports

HUMAN remains from the wreckage of EgyptAir flight 804 suggest an explosion happened on board, officials claim.

There is still no reason for the disappearance of the plane. Picture: Kevin Cleynhens.

THE search for EgyptAir Flight 804 continues, amid contradicting reports about the aircraft’s final moments.

A senior Egyptian forensics official says small fragments of human remains retrieved from the crash site of the plane suggest there was an explosion on board that may have brought it down.

“The logical explanation is that an explosion brought it down,” the official told The Associated Press.

The official is part of the Egyptian investigative team and has personally examined the remains at a Cairo morgue. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorised to release the information.

He says all 80 pieces brought to Cairo so far are small and that “there isn’t even a whole body part, like an arm or a head.” The expert said one of the human arms has signs of burns which was an indication it “belonged to a passenger sitting next to the explosion.”

“But I cannot say what caused the blast,” he said.

Families of the victims have nearly completed giving DNA samples to help with the grim task of trying to identify the body parts retrieved from the Mediterranean, but French and Egyptian aviation officials have said it is too soon to determine what caused the disaster.

“Any high velocity impact leads to defragmentations, and this is not indicative of what caused the accident,” EgyptAir’s vice chairman Ahmed Adel told CNN. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”

All 66 people on board were killed when the Airbus 320 crashed in the Mediterranean early Thursday while en route from Paris to Cairo.

The head of the government’s forensic agency also dismissed as speculation all media reports about human remains from the crash indicating an explosion.

“Whatever has been published is baseless and mere assumptions,” Hisham Abdel-Hamid told Egypt’s state MENA news agency.

A statement from the government’s investigative committee warned media outlets to be cautious about what is published “to avoid chaos and spreading false rumours and damaging the state’s high interests and national security.”

Screengrab of video uploaded by the Egyptian military shows passenger belongings from the plane. Picture: Egyptian military.

The search involves commercial and military planes and ships. Picture: Salvatore Cavalli

Investigators are still searching for the Airbus A320’s two “black box” recorders on the seabed as they seek answers as to why the aircraft went down on May 19. Greece will start dispatching key information on the crash to Egyptian authorities on Wednesday, including data from the airliner as it flew through Greek airspace just moments before disappearing, a source close to the probe says.

Immediately after the crash the Greek defence minister said the plane “swerved and then plunged” dropping from 37,000 feet to around 15,000 before crashing into the sea.

However the head of Egypt’s state-run air navigation service provider Ehab Azmy, said there was no indication that the plane made unusual movements.

Ships and planes scouring the sea north of Alexandria found body parts, personal belongings and debris from the aircraft, but are yet to locate the two black boxes, which are expected to provide vital clues about what happened.

“There were enough body parts to fill one body bag,” a security official who saw the body parts arrive at Zeinhom morgue in Cairo told Reuters anonymously.

Friends and family attend a memorial service in Cairo. Picture: Chris McGrath

Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadek asked his French counterpart to hand over documents, audio and visual records on the plane during its stay at Charles de Gaulle Airport and until it left French airspace, his office said in a statement on Monday.

He also asked Greek authorities to hand over transcripts of calls between the pilot and Greek air traffic control officials, and for the officials to be questioned over whether the pilot sent a distress signal.

Egyptian officials say they received no mayday call from the pilots before the plane disappeared.

Greek officials say that controllers chatted with the pilot after the plane entered Greek airspace and that he sounded cheerful.

He thanked them in Greek, they said. When they tried to call him again to hand over to Egyptian air traffic control they got no response. The plane then disappeared from radar.

French investigators say the plane sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board as well as other possible computer faults shortly before it disappeared.

The signals did not indicate what may have caused smoke, and aviation experts have not ruled out either deliberate sabotage or a technical fault.

If the black box recorders are found intact their contents will be studied in Egypt, air accident investigator Captain Hani Galal told CBC, but they will be sent abroad for analysis if found damaged.

The State Security Prosecution will handle the criminal side of the investigation and will examine all debris and remains, state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Sunday.

A Coptic Christian grieves in Cario as the Egyptian President said it “will take time” to determine the cause of the crash. Picture: Amr Nabil