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EgyptAir Human Remains Suggest Blast

EgyptAir Human Remains Suggest Blast
EgyptAir Human Remains Suggest Blast

Human remains retrieved from the crash site of EgyptAir Flight 804 suggest there was an explosion on board that may have brought down the aircraft in the east Mediterranean, a senior Egyptian forensics official said on Tuesday.

The official, who is part of the Egyptian team investigating the crash that killed all 66 people on board the flight from Paris to Cairo early last Thursday, has personally examined the remains at a Cairo morgue. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, AP reported.

All 80 pieces that have been brought to Cairo so far are small. “There isn’t even a whole body part, like an arm or a head,” said the official, adding that one piece was the left part of a head.

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

Egyptian authorities have said they believe terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure, and some aviation experts have said the erratic flight reported by the Greek defense minister suggests a bomb blast or a struggle in the cockpit. But so far no hard evidence has emerged.

An independent Cairo daily, Al-Watan, quoted an unnamed forensics official in its Tuesday edition as saying the plane blew up in midair but that it has yet to be determined whether the blast was caused by an explosive device or something else.

The official further said the remains retrieved so far are “no larger than the size of a hand.”

France’s aviation accident investigation agency would not comment on anything involving the bodies or say whether any information has surfaced in the investigation to indicate an explosion.

In a search for clues, family members of the victims arrived on Tuesday at the Cairo morgue forensics’ department to give DNA samples to help identify the remains of their kin, a security official said.

Financialtribune.com