Egypt dismisses reports that blast caused plane crash

Hisham Abdel-Hamid, head of Egypt’s forensic authority, has dismissed media reports suggesting last week’s crash of Egypt Air flight MS804 might have been caused by an explosion.

“Everything that’s been published in this regard has no basis in fact; they are mere assumptions,” Abdel-Hamid said in a statement issued today.

Some western media outlets quoted Egyptian forensic officials who suggested the plane might have crashed as a result of an explosion; they said this was based on the fact that some of the bodies found were not intact.

Last Thursday, EgyptAir flight MS804 – flying from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board – disappeared shortly after entering Egyptian airspace.

On Friday morning, Egyptian state television announced that the army had found the wreckage in the eastern Mediterranean.

Both the French and Egyptian authorities have since launched investigations to determine the cause of the crash, which remains unknown.