Greece finds pieces of plastic in sea search for missing EgyptAir plane

A Greek frigate searching for a missing Egyptair aircraft discovered two large plastic floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of the island of Crete on Thursday, Greek defence sources said.

The two objects appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red. They were spotted close to an area where a transponder signal was emitted earlier, the sources said.

"There have been finds southeast of Crete, inside the Cairo flight information area," general staff spokesman Vassilis Beletsiotis said, adding that an Egyptian C-130 plane had spotted the floating objects, and ships would be sent to investigate.

Greek state television ERT had earlier reported that debris had been spotted some 230 nautical miles (425 km) from Crete, about 100 nautical miles from the plane's last known location.

EgyptAir Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo, which had 66 people on board, was last recorded some 130 nautical miles from the island of Karpathos, between Crete and Rhodes.

Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the plane fell 22,000 feet and swerved sharply in Egyptian airspace before it disappeared from radar screens, Greece's defence minister said.

No distress call was made.

Egypt and Greece both said they had dispatched aircraft and naval vessels on a search mission and they were expected to be joined by French teams.

RT LEXPRESS "EN DIRECT. #EgyptAir: des débris localisés au large de la Crète (autorités grecques) … pic.twitter.com/bNosdiG7xU"

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