Forensic Expert: Human Remains In EgyptAir Crash Have Burns, Suggesting Possible Explosion On Plane

CAIRO (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A senior Egyptian forensics official says human remains recovered from the crash site of EgyptAir Flight 804 have burns on them and are "very tiny,'' which suggests an explosion may have taken place in midair on board the aircraft.

The official is on the Egyptian forensic team and has personally examined the remains, kept at a Cairo morgue. He spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

He says the body parts are "so tiny'' and that at least one piece of a human arm has signs of burns,  an indication it might have "belonged to a passenger sitting next to the explosion.''

All 66 people on board the flight from Paris to Cairo were killed in crash, which still remains a mystery.

The plane crashed after it disappeared from radar early Thursday morning.

The head of Egypt's state-run provider of air navigation services says that EgyptAir Flight 804 did not swerve or lose altitude before it disappeared off radar, challenging an earlier account by Greece's defense minister.

Ehab Azmy, head of the National Air Navigation Services Company, told The Associated Press on Monday that in the minutes before the plane disappeared it was flying at its normal altitude of 37,000 feet, according to the radar reading.

He said "that fact degrades what the Greeks are saying about aircraft suddenly losing altitude before it vanished from radar."

According to Greece's defense minister Panos Kammenos the plane swerved and dropped to 10,000 feet before it fell off radar.

Greek civil aviation authorities say all appeared fine with the flight until air traffic controllers were to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts. The pilot did not respond to their calls, and then vanished from radars.

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