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.
Moments ago, the effort may have gotten one step closer to its target, when the European Space Agency says one of its satellites has spotted a possible oil slick in the same area of the Mediterranean Sea where EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared. The agency said its Sentinel-1A radar satellite detected the 2 kilometer- (1.2 mile-) long slick about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the plane's last known location. It gave the coordinates as 33 32' N / 29 13' E.
ESA says the information was passed to relevant authorities late Thursday to aid their search-and-rescue operations. The agency cautioned that there was no guarantee the slick was from the missing aircraft. It said the sister satellite Sentinel-2A will pass above the same area on Sunday and images will be studied for further clues as to the plane's fate.
The AP also notes, somewhat surprisingly, that a terror analyst who is in contact with members of the Islamic State group and other jihadist groups says there have been "no credible or even semi-credible" claims of responsibility for the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804.
Shiraz Maher at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation in London says IS on Thursday released a 20-minute video about how they planned to conquer India. He says "if they had been involved in the crash, it would be very odd for them to have sent that video rather than boasting of the crash."
Confirming what we said yesterday, Maher added that both the Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates have been quick to claim responsibility in the past for other plane crashes, though he said the wreckage is a better indicator of whether the crash was terror-related. Maher also said it would be highly unusual to target a plane with mostly Muslim passengers, as EgyptAir's leaked passenger manifest has suggested.