EgyptAir crash investigation focuses on smoke, debris

Investigators say smoke was detected in multiple places on a downed EgyptAir flight moments before it crashed, but the cause of the disaster remains unclear.

A spokesman for the French air accident investigation agency said the automatic detection system on the plane sent alarm messages in the flight’s final minutes. The messages “generally mean the start of a fire,” Sebastien Barthe said, but “we are drawing no conclusions from this. Everything else is pure conjecture.”

The Egyptian military has released photos of some of the wreckage recovered from the crash site. The pictures show torn up seats, life vests, and airplane parts. The Airbus A320 was on its way from Paris to Cairo when it plummeted into the Mediterranean early Thursday morning with 66 people on board. Searchers are combing through debris in the water and looking for the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders. The aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and fell 38,000 feet into the sea, never issuing a distress signal.

Investigators are poring over the passenger list and questioning ground crew members at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, trying to determine whether the crash was an act of terrorism.