EgyptAir plane crash update 2016: Officials suspect terrorism

Officials working on the investigation of the missing EgyptAir jetliner that's believed to have crashed in the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday, May 19, are looking into the initial theory of terrorism but warn that it may be too early to tell for certain.

"The possibility of a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure," Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi told reporters at a press conference in Cairo.

According to CNN, the missing EgyptAir Flight 804 is an Airbus A320 that's considered one of the safest passenger planes in the sky.

Aerospace expert at the University of Notre Dame, retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Latiff also expressed his confidence in the reliability of the A320.

"Sabotage is possible, and if there were lax controls at airports and loose hiring and security policies, increasingly likely," he told the Associated Press.

Although EgyptAir Vice Chairman Ahmed Adel claimed that the aircraft underwent timely maintenance checks, former Federal Aviation Authority Chief of Staff Michael Goldfarb acknowledged that there's a possibility the bomb was not picked up by a detecting system during the security sweep, CNN reported.

U.S. authorities are currently working on the theory that the airbus may have been taken down by a terrorist bomb.

Latiff doubted the theory of hijackers on board since there was reportedly no distress signal sent from the plane. He said a cockpit struggle would have triggered an alarm. Former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member, John Goglia also believes that the bomb theory is more likely in the absence of a mayday call.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenous told reporters that the aircraft, carrying 66 people onboard, "swerved and then plunged" before it went missing on its way from Paris to Cairo at about 2:45 am Cairo time.

The passengers aboard the A320 were 15 French, 30 Egyptians, two Iraqis, one Briton, one Kuwait, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Belgian, one Algerian, and two Canadians, according to EgyptAir and various governments, as reported by AP.