The EgyptAir jet that disappeared last week did not show technical problems before taking off from Paris, Reuters reported Tuesday night, citing sources within the Egyptian investigation committee.
The sources said the plane did not make contact with Egyptian air traffic control, but Egyptian air traffic controllers were able to see it on radar on a border area between Egyptian and Greek airspace known as KUMBI, 260 nautical miles from Cairo.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said the plane disappeared without swerving off radar screens after less than a minute of it entering Egyptian airspace. Air traffic controllers from Greece and Egypt have given differing accounts of the plane’s final moments, noted Reuters.
The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Tuesday that the plane had shown no technical problems before taking off, citing an Aircraft Technical Log signed by its pilot before takeoff.
The newspaper, which published a scan of the technical log on its website, said EgyptAir flight 804 transmitted 11 “electronic messages” starting at 5:09 p.m. ET on May 18, about 3 1/2 hours before disappearing from radar screens with 66 passengers and crew on board.
The first two messages indicated the engines were functional. The third message came at 8:26 p.m. ET on May 18 and showed a rise in the temperature of the co-pilot’s window. The plane kept transmitting messages for the next three minutes before vanishing, Al-Ahram said.
Earlier on Tuesday, reports said that human remains retrieved following the crash indicate that the plane suffered an explosion before crashing.
Those reports cited Egyptian investigators, but Cairo later denied there was evidence of an explosion on the flight.
International air and naval teams discovered debris of the plane Friday, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Alexandria. Among the wreckage were personal belongings of passengers and crew.
Speculation remains high that the crash was the result of terrorism, based on previous threats to the plane, the proximity of hundreds of maintenance workers to the plane at four high-risk airports in the 48 hours before the crash, and an odd trajectory recorded on the flight – as well as the lack of emergency warnings before the plane was spotted with a flash and a fireball.
