Egyptian Civil Aviation minister Sherif Fathy has admitted Thursday afternoon that terrorism is the most likely explanation for the downing of EgyptAir flight MS804.
The plane, heading from Paris to Cairo, disappeared from the radar early Thursday morning while flying over the Mediterranean.
Egyptian authorities earlier said an "explosion" had brought down the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew members, but cautioned they had not ruled out any causes.
However, speaking at a press conference, Fathy stated that terrorism appeared to be the cause.
Though he warned against "people making assumptions, while we haven’t found the wreckage yet," he then acknowledged that "if you analysis the situation properly the possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical [problem]," according to the Guardian.
Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos previously told reporters the Airbus A320 had "turned 90 degrees left and then a 360-degree turn to the right," before plunging more than 25,000ft and disappearing from the radar.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the first pieces of debris from the plane have been discovered floating in the Mediterranean.
The fragments were identified as white and red-colored pieces of plastic, according to the report. They were found by Greek search teams "50 miles south of the island of Karpathos."
All signs point to terror
The doomed plane had been flying at 37,000ft when it disappeared, shortly after entering Egyptian airspace.
The Airbus A320 plane took off from the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris at 11:09 p.m. (CEST) last night, carrying 66 passengers and crew members.
According to Greek aviation officials, when the plane entered Greek airspace they had made contact with the pilot, who did not report anything out of the ordinary. Greek TV quoted Greece's civil aviation authority as stating that the pilot was "in good spirits" at the time, and had even thanked them for their help in Greek.
But when they tried again to make contact at 2:27 a.m. Cairo time, as the aircraft was entering Egyptian airspace, there was no response. Just two minutes later, EgyptAir flight MS804 disappeared from the radar completely.
Suicide bomber?
Strangely, though, EgyptAir reported receiving emergency signals from the plane at 4:26 a.m. - some two hours after radar contact was lost.
The crew of a ship sailing in the general area the flight had been traveling ominously reported seeing a huge fireball streaking through the sky.
And, in confirming the discovery of the first fragments of the plane approximately 100 nautical miles away from where the plane was initially believed to have crashed, Greek authorities have expressed fears that a suicide bomber may have hijacked the plane first and cut contact, before detonating himself and killing everyone on board.