Disaster

While earlier today the Egyptian military claimed to have found wreckage, including a body part, seats and suitcases from the crashed EgyptAir airliner, the question of just where the aircraft came down in the Mediterranean remains. Since finding the black box - and the reason behind the crash - requires finding the remains of the fuselage first, this is the current focus of the search mission, now that no survivors are expected.

The Egyptian military said it has found EgyptAir Flight MS804 debris 290 km north of the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria. Egyptian army spokesman Brg. Gen. Mohammed Samir said on his verified Facebook page Friday that his military's search planes and vessels had discovered parts of the Airbus A320 along with some passengers' belongings.The military is certain the debris comes from Flight MS804 Samir told NBC News by phone, adding that the wreckage will be brought back to Egypt for investigation.

As attention shifts from the fate of EgyptAir's vanished flight MS804, which disappeared shortly before landing at 2:30am local time and which both Greek air traffic controllers and French president Hollande declared earlier ago has crashed, the focus turns to what happened during the doomed flight's final moments.

First, via the Guardian, here is a recap of what is known so far:

Six months after an Airbis A321 operated by Russia's Metrojet exploded shortly after takeoff from Egypt's Sinai peninsula en route to St. Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board in what was an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack, overnight there has been another aircraft-related tragedy when an EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean shortly before landing, at 2:30am local time. Officials said they believed the jet has come down in the Mediterranean sea.

John McCain reminds us that his foreign policy views are truly vile:

Had it not been for Saudi Arabia, Yemen would have reached a catastrophic situation, US Senator John McCain has said, according to pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.