Greek air safety authorities deny EgyptAir wreckage found

Athens: The head of the Greek air safety authority on Thursday told AFP that wreckage found in the Mediterranean close to where an EgyptAir passenger jet is thought to have crashed "does not come from a plane".

"Up to now the analysis of the debris indicates that it does not come from a plane, my Egyptian counterpart also confirmed to me that it was not yet proven that the debris came from the EgyptAir flight when we were last in contact around 1745 GMT," Athanasios Binis told AFP.

His words contradicted an earlier claim by EgyptAir on Twitter, which said Egyptian officials had confirmed that debris found near the Greek island of Karpathos came from the ill-fated flight, along with floating "life jackets and plastic material".

"What was found was a piece of wood, and some materials that do not come from a plane," said Binis of the Greek Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board.

"Based on the available geographical information, we are talking about the same debris," he added, although he stressed that new information could come in at any time.

The EgyptAir plane carrying 66 people disappeared from radar screens early Thursday, taking two sharp turns before plunging 22,000 feet into the Mediterranean Sea, Greek officials said.

Egypt's aviation minister said that while it was too soon to say why the Airbus A320 flying from Paris to Cairo had vanished, "a terrorist" attack would be a more likely scenario than a technical failure.