EgyptAir Flight 804: El-Sisi says ‘all scenarios possible’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has urged the media not to speculate about the cause of an EgyptAir plane crash which killed all 66 people on board, saying all scenarios were still being considered. 

Speaking in Cairo on Sunday, Sisi thanked other nations for helping in the search for the passenger plane which crashed into the Mediterranean early on Thursday shortly after leaving Greek airspace.

The president promised to release full details about the cause of the crash once an investigation was complete and said, though the probe could take a long time, “no one could hide the facts”.

“Until now all scenarios are possible. So please, it is very important that we do not talk and say there is a specific scenario,” Sisi told assembled ministers and MPs.

READ MORE: France says smoke detected on EgyptAir flight before crash

“The Egyptians seem to be sort of back-tracking from their initial position,” Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Paris, said. “In the beginning, one of the highest officials of EgyptAir said they believed the crash was most likely the result of a terrorist act.”

On Saturday, a French aviation safety agency confirmed the plane had transmitted automatic messages indicating smoke was in the cabin before the crash. Those reports may have caused Egyptian authorities to be more cautious, Ahelbarra said. 

“The authorities are now putting more emphasis on smoke alarm signals that have been received from the plane. Reports about these signals led many people to think that this could perhaps be a sign of a massive mechanical failure.”

On Friday, human remains, luggage and debris were retrieved from the sea, around 290km north of the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.

The European Space Agency said a satellite on Thursday spotted a possible 2km-long oil slick, about 40km south-east of the last-known location of the plane.

The two black boxes from Egyptair Flight MS804 have yet to be discovered. Experts have said definitive answers would come only with an examination of the wreckage, cockpit recordings and the black boxes.