Investigators from France's air accident authority and Airbus have arrived in Egypt to help probe the mysterious crash of an EgyptAir plane in the Mediterranean, the French embassy said Friday.
US Navy sends surveillance plane in EgyptAir search
Three BEA civil aviation experts and an Airbus technical adviser arrived in Cairo overnight, while search and rescue teams hunted for signs of wreckage, embassy spokeswoman Ines Ben Kraiem told AFP.
The Airbus A320 flying from Paris to Cairo swerved suddenly before plunging and disappearing from radar screens early Thursday with 66 people on board, including 30 Egyptian and 15 French passengers.
The cause of the crash remains unknown but suspicions quickly focused on the possibility that it was downed by extremists.
EgyptAir flight crashes in Mediterranean with 66 on board
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian passenger plane over Egypt's Sinai in October, killing all 224 people on board.
The French experts are set to meet Egyptian investigators on Friday afternoon to lay the groundwork for their probe, which is expected to get under way fully once wreckage has been retrieved.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ