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Smoke detected on EgyptAir plane before crash, investigators say; images of debris revealed

An image reportedly of debris from the EgyptAir crash posted on an official Egyptian military Facebook page.
(AFP / Getty Images)
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Automatic messages sent from EgyptAir Flight 804 indicated there was smoke in the cabin shortly before the aircraft lost contact with air traffic controllers and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, French investigators said Saturday.

The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis, France’s civil aviation investigative body, said it was premature to determine the meaning of the messages, but experts said the finding was consistent with speculation among U.S. and Egyptian officials that a bomb could have exploded on board.

A bureau spokesman said it was “too early to interpret and understand the causes of the accident until we recover the wreckage and black boxes,” according to Agence France-Presse.

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Egyptian military forces recovered human remains and debris from the Mediterranean on Friday, roughly 180 miles north of the Egyptian city of Alexandria, the first clues to emerge in the crash that occurred Thursday morning.

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The Egyptian military posted the first pictures of the wreckage Saturday on its official Facebook page.Some of the photos appeared to show shreds of seat cushions with their foam padding exposed, the likeliest items to float to the surface. Another picture showed a yellow life jacket that had not been inflated.

Aviation Herald, an online publication, first reported Friday that alert messages transmitted from the aircraft indicated smoke in the lavatory near the cockpit and in the area of the plane housing the avionics, the electronic systems that help the jet to fly.

The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System messages, or ACARS, are short messages transmitted automatically by the aircraft during flight. The messages indicating smoke were sent shortly before the aircraft lost contact with Greek air traffic controllers at 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

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Investigators say they suspect terrorism, not a mechanical failure, caused the plane to make a sharp left turn at 37,000 feet before plummeting into the sea shortly after crossing into Egyptian airspace.

The Airbus A320 jet, which left Paris on Wednesday night en route to Cairo, was carrying 56 passengers, seven crew members and three airline security officers, all of whom are presumed dead.

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UPDATES:

5:33 a.m.: Updated with Egyptian military posting photos reportedly of crash debris.

1:53 a.m.: Updated with new details throughout.

This article was first posted at 1:31 a.m.

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