- EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed with 56 passengers and 10 crew on board
- All passengers, including British geologist Richard Osman, feared dead
- Who are the victims? What we know so far
- 'Smoke detected inside the aircraft cabin'
- Experts say flight data 'seems to point towards a bomb'
- Body parts and suitcases from the missing flight found
- EgyptAir flight MS804 disappears: everything we know
Egyptian government denies black box located
A source at the Civil Aviation ministry is now denying reports that the black boxes have been found. They tell the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm that if the black boxes had been found they would notify the public "immediately".
The chaotic and contradicting claims out of Egypt continue.
Black box 'located'
Egyptian government sources are telling CBS News that they have located Flight 804's black boxes in the Mediterranean and are working to recover them. A military spokesman refused to comment on the report.
If that is confirmed - and there have been several false starts so far - it would be a major step forward in figuring out what happened to the flight.
The two data recorders, as long as they are intact, will tell investigators what was said in the cockpit in the plane's final minutes and will record data about the aircraft's final movements.
Egyptian military releases first photos of debris from Flight MS804
The Egyptian military has released the first photos of the debris from Flight MS804 collected so far.
The pictures show a forlorn collection of scraps of seats, bits of cloth from the cabin's interior, lifejackets that were likely never used and parts of aircraft wreckage.
The first debris was found yesterday morning, around 180 miles north of Alexandria.
French to test Euro 2016 security measures tonight at the Stade de France amid terror fears
Jannat Jalil in Paris reports
Paris Security measures to be used for the Euro 2016 football championship will be tested tonight at a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille at the Stade de France, which was targeted in November’s terrorist attacks.
New 2.4 metre-high fencing has been built around the stadium to form what officials say is a “insurmountable wall”. Snipers will posted around the stadium and elite police will be deployed. Around 1,000 security officers and at least 550 police will protect the match, and extra CCTV cameras have been installed and buildings near the stadium will be searched.
In addition to the terror threat, Marseille and Paris fans will be kept apart to avoid violence, a frequent problem at matches between PSG and OM.
France is hosting the Euros from June 10 to July 10, amid heightened fears of another terrorist attack. Ten sniffer-dogs trained to find explosives of the sort used in suicide vests and belts are to be used to screen crowds entering the controversial fan zones where tens of thousands will watch matches on giant screens. Another 30 sniffer dogs are to be deployed at French railway stations.
A former French police chief has warned that the huge fan zone planned near the Eiffel Tower will "offer terrorists a chance to carry out a massacre".
EgyptAir not part of new Paris airport passenger security check testing
Jannat Jalil in Paris reports
Charles de Gaulle airport will begin testing a passenger screening tool known as the passenger name record (PNR) next week. The system, already in use in Britain, identifies passengers whose profiles indicate a potential risk. It cross-references names, addresses and means of payment with police crime and terrorism files.
However, EgyptAir will not be among the eight airlines that will take part in the trial, which the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, says is long overdue.
The system is to become fully operational by the end of the year in France, which has received nearly £14 million in EU aid to finance its introduction. It can detect passengers who have travelled to countries such as Syria and Yemen, with their return dates.
Experts say flight data seems to point towards a bomb
Raf Sanchez in Cairo reports
To the untrained eyes, the data recorded by Flight 804's sensors is a meaningless jumble of code and technical language:
00:26Z 3044 ANTI ICE R WINDOW
00:26Z 561200 R SLIDING WINDOW SENSOR
00:26Z 2600 SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE
00:27Z 2600 AVIONICS SMOKE
00:28Z 561100 R FIXED WINDOW SENSOR
00:29Z 2200 AUTO FLT FCU 2 FAULT
00:29Z 2700 F/CTL SEC 3 FAULT
But to an aviation professional, it tells a terrifying story of a series of cascading faults before the system went dead entirely. I spoke to a European airline pilot who helped make sense of the data from the ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System).
The data on its own is far from definitive but the pilot believed "an internal explosion" seemed the most likely cause, explaining both the sudden problems with the windows and the smoke in the cabin. "It looks like the right front and side windows were blown out, most probably from inside out," the pilot said.
There is still a lot we don't know. But the data from ACARS seems to point towards a bomb.
EgyptAir flights resume from Paris to Cairo
Magdy Samaan in Cairo reports
EgyptAir has resumed its flights from Paris to Cairo with another Airbus 330. The number of the flight was changed from MS 804 to MS 802 from Paris to Cairo and from MS 803 to MS 801 from Cairo to Paris.
Meanwhile around 15 of the French victims' families arrived in Cairo this morning. They were received by officials French embassy officials in Cairo and Cairo Airport's Public Relation officers. They were then accompanied to a hotel near the airport.
The families are waiting to hear about any information on the cause of the crash, as well as being on hand to identify and collect their loved ones bodies, which will be taken to morgues in Cairo.
What we know so far
As the authorities start to sift through the wreckage which has been found in the Mediterranean 180 miles north of Alexandria, investigators will try to discover what led to smoke being detected in the cabin shortly before the crash.
While the presence of smoke inside the Airbus A320 is consistent with an explosion, some experts believe that it is also evidence of some form of technical fault.
Details of smoke in the aircraft emerged from data pulled from the A320's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) and published in the Aviation Herald.
It shows that smoke was detected in the aircraft lavatory at 2.26 am, with a second sensor going off a minute later with further faults until 2.29 am, when the system ceased recording.
According to the Wall Street Journal, people “familiar with the matter” say that the alerts could be an indication of a problem with the flight control system.
While not ruling out a bomb, Bob Mann, a US aviation expert, says the latest data indicate a number of possibilities. “The data could indicate rapid decompression or smoke and a progressive loss of flight control systems.
Investigators will get a far better idea of what cause the crash when they find the black box flight recorders, detailing what happened in the final moments before the plane plummeted into the Mediterranean. But they could take a long time to locate.
It took two years to find the blackboxes belonging to Air France flight 447 which plunged into the Atlantic killing 228 people.
Another indication, however, would be the state of the fuselage. If the crash was caused by a bomb there would be some explosive residue and the force of the blast would have been expected to have buckled some of the aircraft’s body.
EgyptAir flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for Cairo at 21.09 GMT on Wednesday. It was due to land at 01.15 GMT. There were 56 passengers and 10 crew on board.
The plane lost contact as it left Greek airspace while cruising at 37,000 feet and before it was handed on to Egyptian air traffic control.
In other developments:
• Egypt’s government has told the families of the 66 people on board there are no survivors.
• The nationalities of those on board include 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, two Iraqis, two Canadians and one national from from the UK, Algeria, Belgium, Chad, Kuwait, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
• The Briton was named as Richard Osman, 40, who became a father for the second time just over three weeks ago.
• Body parts, luggage and parts of the Airbus have been found in the Mediterranean about 180 miles north of Alexandria
• Neither Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) nor al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for the crash.
• Egypt has set up an investigation into the crash, which will be headed by pilot Ayman al-Moqadem, the head of Egypt's commission of aviation accidents
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