The U.S. government is operating on their initial theory that a bomb took down the EgyptAir flight, officials told CNN.
An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed into the Mediterranean Sea off the Greek island of Crete early Thursday morning, Egyptian and Greek officials said. Egypt’s aviation minister said the crash was more likely caused by a terror attack than technical problems.
President Barack Obama has been briefed on the situation, said Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism.
Aboard were 56 passengers and 10 cabin crew members and security officers. The passengers were predominantly Egyptian — 30 in all — but also aboard were 15 French citizens, including an infant; two Iraqis; and one from each of the following countries: Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada, according to Fathi, the Egyptian aviation minister.
A Greek military official says an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight.
The official says the items were found 230 miles (370 kilometers) south-southeast of the island of Crete but still within the Egyptian air traffic control area. One of the items was oblong, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.
Russian security official Alexander Bortnikov says “in all likelihood it was a terror attack” that caused EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo to crash into the Mediterranean early Thursday with 66 people on board. KRON.com
