INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

EgyptAir Crash: Possible Terrorist Attack Suggested After Traces Of Explosives Found On Victims

By Kris Holt
Published on: 02:26 PST, Dec 15, 2016

The EgyptAir crash investigation has taken a new turn after authorities discovered that there were traces of explosives on some of the victims following a forensic analysis.

Flight MS804, departing from Paris to Cairo, plummeted into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19. All 66 people on board died in the crash.

“Forensic investigations have found traces of explosives on some human remains from the victims of the incident,” investigators said.

Following the discovery of traces of explosives, Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said that a criminal investigation would now start into the EgyptAir crash. The investigation is likely to explore the possibility that a bomb was planted onboard, as the evidence points to a potential terrorist attack on the flight, reports the Independent.

Egyptian officials previously suggested a terror attack or technical failures could have been responsible for taking down the plane though the cause of the crash remains unclear.

The EgyptAir plane carried 56 passengers and 10 crew at the time of the crash. Among them were 40 Egyptians (including the crew), 15 French citizens, two from Iraq, two Canadians, and a passenger each from Algeria, Belgium, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the United Kingdom.

According to the flight data recorder tracking the EgyptAir crash, there were suggestions the pilots had attempted to put out a fire and that there was smoke found.

Before contact with the EgyptAir plane was lost, it sent out a string of automated ACARS messages, which indicated that there were multiple threats on the aircraft.

The first message went out at 2:26 a.m. Cairo time and suggested there was a problem with the heater for the co-pilot’s window. In the next three minutes, the plane sent out six more messages. Two related to window sensors and two mentioned smoke from detectors in a toilet behind the flight deck and the avionics bay below the cockpit.

The smoke detectors can be triggered by condensation that occurs during sudden decompression but since wreckage found of the front section of the plane indicated signs of damage caused by high temperatures, along with soot, evidence suggests that there was indeed a fire.

The last two ACARS messages, which were sent within seconds of each other, suggested there were problems with both the flight control system and the autopilot controls. The word “fire” was also audible on the cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered from the crash site by divers.

The EgyptAir crash pilots did not make a distress call, and radar readings appeared to show the plane turning sharply before it hit the sea. It turned 90 degrees to the left then made a 360-degree right turn before crashing.

Contact with the plane was lost at 2:30 a.m.

Most of the plane and the bodies of the victims are likely to be under the sea, though small pieces of the wreckage and some human remains have been found.

Though there is a possibility that someone may have attacked the EgyptAir plane, no one has yet claimed to have done so. An initial manslaughter investigation by French authorities suggested there was no evidence that the crash was related to terrorism, but noted their findings could change pending the discovery of new evidence.

The EgyptAir crash in May came seven months after a Russian plane was downed in the Sinai Peninsula soon after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, a Red Sea resort in Egypt. All 224 people on board died in that crash.

An Islamic State affiliate in the area claimed responsibility at the time, saying it had used explosives planted on board to crash the plane. Russian authorities suggested explosives were the likely cause of the crash.

Whether the EgyptAir crash was an act of terrorism remains to be determined, though the latest evidence points in that direction.

[Featured Image by Ahmet Akin Diler/AP Images]

Share this article: EgyptAir Crash: Possible Terrorist Attack Suggested After Traces Of Explosives Found On Victims
terrorism
More from Inquisitr