Cairo: Traces of explosives have been found on victims' remains from an EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean in May killing all 66 people on board, the aviation ministry announced yesterday. An official investigative committee which made the discovery has referred the case to Egypt's state prosecution, it added in a statement.
Under Egyptian law, the prosecution takes over "if it becomes clear to the investigative committee that there is criminal suspicion behind the accident", the ministry said. EgyptAir MS804 was en route from Paris to Cairo when it disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean. Investigators determined that a fire broke out in or near the cockpit of the Airbus A320 before it crashed between Crete and the coast of northern Egypt.
France's air safety agency BEA and the plane manufacturer Airbus both declined to comment on Thursday's announcement, which comes while Cairo is still investigating the October 2015 crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt's Sinai.
