24th May, 2016
Sources in the Egyptian-led investigation committee said on Tuesday in Cairo that the initial forensic analysis of passengers’ remains points to an explosion on Egyptair flight MS804, which crashed last week.
The sources speaking on condition of anonymity, said that so far, only small body parts no bigger than the palm of a hand had been recovered indicating that an explosion ripped through the plane.
The sources said that if the aircraft had hit the water intact the bodies would not have suffered such damage.
Meanwhile, Hisham Abdul-Hamid, Head of the Egyptian Forensic Medicine Authority, had officially denied the information, saying “it has no basis in fact’’.
He said that the information do not originate with any of the authority’s staff.
Speaking in the aftermath of the incident, the Egyptian-led investigation committee, which also includes French aviation accident investigators and an Airbus technical expert, said that further forensic analysis was taking place.
The sources said this could determine whether the presumed explosion was caused by explosives on board the aircraft or some other cause.
They said that the DNA testing was under way to identify the remains, so that they could be returned to relatives after the completion of the analysis.
The crash came almost six months after a Russian passenger jet broke up in mid-air shortly after take-off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
Russian authorities said that the incident was caused by a bomb.
The Islamic State extremist group, which operates in Sinai, claimed responsibility and published a photograph of a soft drink can which it said had been filled with explosives and smuggled onto the flight.
Egyptian authorities are still investigating the incident.