What happened
On the night of May 18, an Airbus A330 departed from Paris-Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, bound for Cairo. The flight was operating as a scheduled international service with 56 passengers and 10 crew members on board. While the flight crew initially maintained communication with Greek air traffic control, they ceased responding once the aircraft was transferred to Egyptian airspace.
Radar data indicates that shortly after exiting Greek airspace, the aircraft began a rapid descent from FL370 to FL220. The flight path showed an initial leftward turn followed by a full 360-degree right turn. The aircraft disappeared from radar at 0229LT while at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet. No distress signals were transmitted by the crew prior to the loss of contact. The wreckage is believed to have impacted the Mediterranean Sea, roughly 200 km north of the Egyptian coastline. Debris, including passenger luggage, was located on May 20 near Alexandria.
Findings
Data retrieved via ACARS indicated that the aircraft had experienced several technical malfunctions, including reports of smoke in a lavatory and within a technical compartment situated beneath the cockpit. While the flight recorders were recovered in June 2016, their physical condition was severely compromised.
Investigations into the cause of the crash yielded conflicting conclusions. Egyptian authorities identified the presence of explosive traces on several victims and concluded that a malicious act was responsible for the disaster. However, the French BEA proposed a different hypothesis, suggesting that an uncontrolled fire originated in the cockpit and spread quickly enough to cause the loss of the aircraft.