The investigation committee of the crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 said Thursday that debris suspected to be from the aircraft has been found in Israel, and will be transferred to Egypt for technical inspection to confirm its origin.
Israeli officials said wreckage from the aeroplane was located on Natanya beach, north of Tel Aviv.
The John Lethbridge survey vessel continues to search at the site of the crash. Wreckage and human remains were collected last week, and investigations of the black boxes are ongoing.
On 19 May, EgyptAir flight MS804, travelling from Paris to Cairo, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, claiming the lives of all 66 people on board.
The John Lethbridge vessel, rented by the Egyptian government to search for debris and human remains of the crashed flight, has finished collecting all human remains from the crash site, and was assigned to search for more debris.
The distance between the crash site and Netanya is about 750km.
Professor Robert Jones, department chairperson of aviation and transportation studies at Lewis University, said that debris can travel thousands of miles.
“This is of course dependent on the type or size of debris. Large fuselage pieces can float on currents. Thousands of other components that are buoyant can also travel long distances, depending on current tides and hydrology of the water,” Jones told Daily News Egypt.
“Larger, heavier items like landing gear, engines, and heavy structural components tend to sink and are often difficult to detect. This can be complicated given the water depth, temperature, and prevailing sea bed topography, ie corals, silt, sand, and rock beds,” he added.
Most aircraft components have part numbers affixed to them usually by paint, embossing, or some sort of heavy impression marking. The manufacturer part number, serial number, and airline operator data is usually visible.
“It is critical to keep these parts properly documented to avoid black market or illegitimate components from being installed on any commercial aircraft. Therefore, if a part is installed on a specific aircraft, it is usually a matter of typing that serial number into a database to see if it belonged on that specific aircraft,” Jones said.
The aeroplane’s black box reportedly indicated that there were attempts to put out a fire on the aircraft before its crash, officials in the investigation committee told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Aviation did not deny or confirm the reported results. However, it stated that those statements are unofficial and should not be taken as an official result at this time.
The ministry said in an official statement: “The data needs time to be verified and analysed. The experts of the committee are expected to verify the flight recorder data with the timeline of the events and the recordings from the cockpit.”
