EgyptAir crash: Wreckage of flight MS804 spotted a month after crash

Egyptian officials said 'several main locations of the wreckage' have been identified

The crashed EgyptAir plane, an Airbus A320 registration SU-GCC, is seen here taking off from Vienna in August 2015 (AP)

The wreckage of an EgyptAir flight that went missing over the Mediterranean last month has been found, say Egyptian officials.

The committee investigating the crash said in a statement that a vessel contracted by the Egyptian government to join search efforts for the Airbus A320 “had identified several main locations of the wreckage”.

“Accordingly the first images of the wreckage were provided to the investigation committee,” it said.

All 66 people and crew on board flight MS804 were killed when it crashed on 19 May after disappearing from radar en route to Cairo from Paris.

Wreckage from EgyptAir flight MS804 has been found in the Mediterranean Sea (EPA)

The cause of the disaster remains unknown and no group has claimed an attack.

Automatic messages sent in the minutes before the plane disappeared from radar appeared to indicate problems with the cockpit windows, autopilot and the flight control system, and smoke on board.

The search team and the investigators on board will draw up a map with the wreckage distribution spots based on the locations, it added.

Earlier this month, a French company said its special undersea search ship had picked up signals emanating from EgyptAir flight 804’s black boxes in the Mediterranean Sea.

The missing flight data recorders may hold vital information for officials investigating what caused the plane to crash.

Egypt’s civil aviation minister initially said he believed terrorism was a more likely explanation than equipment failure but so far no hard evidence has emerged.

A forensics official said body parts retrieved so far were small and pointed to a possible explosion on board, but the head of Egypt’s forensics authority dismissed it as “mere assumptions”.

Among the victims was Richard Osman, a father-of-two from Wales, and a Frenchman who almost missed the fated flight after losing his passport.

EgyptAir said 30 Egyptians, 15 French passengers, two Iraqis, and one passenger from Britain, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were on board.

Additional reporting by agencies