CRI听力:Search for EgyptAir Continues

Ships and planes from Greece, France, Britain, Cyprus and Egypt are now combining their efforts to find the remains of EgyptAir flight 804.

Evidence of the Airbus A320 has been found floating in the Mediterranean about half-way between the Greek island of Crete and Egypt's coast.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos says there is now no doubt about the fate of the 66-people onboard the plane.

"We have been briefed by the Egyptian joint rescue coordination center about the discovery of a body part, two seats and a luggage over the sea of the search. Slightly to the south where plane singal was lost."

Most of the search is now being focused around the area where the initial debris and human remains have been spotted.

Deep-water search and recovery expert David Mearns says the next step will be to locate the main fuselage of the plane.

"The first wreckage has now been found ... The crash site was actually impact on the seabed. And then, the next underwater phase will begin, searching with a device to listen to the underwater touch of black boxes. And those will obviously focus everywhere covering.... get those because that tell us most of the information in a short period of time. "

Satellite imagery has detected what could be an oil slick in the area.

David Mearns says this could well be the point where the aircraft hit the water.

"That's potentially significant. Because you can actually sample that well. Get somebody go on the water, get bit of the oil can actually determine whether it's from a ship marine oil or it's aircraft oil. If it's aircraft oil, it's actually coming up from a point source on the seabed. And that's only good way to localize where .... the seabed."

Officials have not said whether they've been able to detect signals from the plane's black box.

Finding the flight data recorders of the aircraft will be critical in determining what happened to EgyptAir 804.

French air accident investigators have revealed the flight's internal monitoring system did signal smoke in numerous parts of the plane just minutes before it disappeared from radar, suggesting a possible fire.

French investigators say it's still too early to draw any conclusions.

Egyptian officials have been quick to point to terrorism as a likely factor, suggesting the erratic turns the plane made before it disappeared off radar point to either a bomb or a struggle over the aircraft's controls.

However, there have been no claims of responsibility from terrorist groups, and initial checks of the passengers' backgrounds haven't found any connections to terrorism.

For CRI, I'm Liu Mohan.