EgyptAir Alerts Baffle Experts as Fire or Bomb Both Possible

  • Error messages hint at trouble for some minutes before crash
  • Retrieved body parts may suggest more immediate demise
Photographer: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg
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It could have been a fire, a bomb, a cascading electrical failure -- or something else altogether.

The first hard evidence about what brought down EgyptAir Flight 804 last week -- a string of seven error messages sent automatically minutes before the Airbus A320 plunged into the Mediterranean -- has done little to narrow down what happened, according to aircraft specialists and accident investigators.