CAIRO: Egypt said on Friday its navy had found human remains, wreckage and the personal belongings of passengers floating in the Mediterranean, confirming that an EgyptAir jet had plunged into the sea with 66 people on board.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered condolences for those on board, amounting to Egypt’s official acknowledgement of their deaths, although there was still no explanation of why the Airbus had crashed.

“The Egyptian navy was able to retrieve more debris from the plane, some of the passengers’ belongings, human remains, and plane seats,” the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement. The navy was searching an area about 290km north of the port city of Alexandria, just south of where the signal from the plane was lost early on Thursday.

There was no sign of the bulk of the wreckage, or of a location signal from the “black box” flight recorders.

EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Moslem told state television that the current radius of the search zone was 64km, giving an area of 13,000sq km, but that it would be expanded if necessary. A European satellite spotted a two-kilometre-long oil slick in the Mediterranean, about 40km southeast of the aircraft’s last known position, the European Space Agency said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said that it was too early to rule out any cause for the crash. The aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure.

Although suspicion pointed to Islamist militants who blew up another airliner over Egypt seven months ago, no group had claimed responsibility more than 36 hours after the disappearance of flight MS804, an Airbus A320 flying from Paris to Cairo.

Militants have been fighting Egypt’s government since Sisi toppled an elected Islamist leader in 2013. In October, the militant Islamic State group claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian airliner that exploded after taking off from an Egyptian tourist resort. Russian investigators blamed a bomb smuggled on board.

That crash devastated Egypt’s tourism industry, one of the main sources of foreign exchange for a country of 80 million people, and a similar attack would crush hopes for its recovery.

Three French investigators and a technical expert from Airbus arrived in Cairo early on Friday, airport sources said.

Officials from a number of US agencies said that a US review of satellite imagery so far had not produced any signs of an explosion. They said the United States had not ruled out any possible causes for the crash, including mechanical failure, terrorism or a deliberate act by the pilot or crew.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2016