Egyptian forces on Friday said they have recovered parts of the fuselage of EgyptAir flight MS 804 in the Mediterranean Sea. The Paris-Cairo flight that was carrying 66 people went missing on Thursday morning, halfway between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian coast.

Parts of the aircraft and some belongings of passengers were found around 290 kilometres north of the coastal city of Alexandria, the military said in a statement. “The searching, sweeping and the retrieval process is underway,” CNN reported military spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Samir as saying. “The presidency, with utmost sadness and regret, mourns the victims on aboard the EgyptAir flight who were killed after the plane crashed in the Mediterranean,” the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

Reports said some Egyptian and Russian officials said it could have crashed because of terrorists. The aircraft had made two “sharp turns” before it disappeared off the radar. It “turned 90 degrees left and then a 360-degree turn to the right”, before dropping more than 25,000-ft (7,620 m) and disappearing from radar, Greece’s Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said.

"The possibility of a terror attack is higher than a malfunction, but again, I don't want to hypothesise," Egypt's civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathy, told reporters, adding that no theories could be rules out. There have been reports that the aircraft broke apart in mid-air, further fuelling rumours of terrorism being the cause behind the crash.

There were 30 Egyptians and 15 French nationals on board the flight.