CAIRO, May 21 (Aswat Masriya) – The Egyptian Ministry of Aviation has not confirmed French investigators' statements that smoke was detected inside the MS804 flight before it disappeared from the radar, official Egyptian television reported on Saturday.

The French air accident investigation agency BEA said on Saturday that the EgyptAir flight has sent signals that smoke was detected on board before it vanished from the radar 10 miles into Egyptian airspace on Thursday.

The BEA added that this does not clarify the causes for the smoke, or the possible setting ablaze of the plane.

The Egyptian armed forces announced on Friday that they have found plane debris along with possible passenger belongings close to the coast of Alexandria while the Egyptian aviation ministry stated the military are continuing their search.

Egypt’s flag carrier airline had announced early Thursday morning that its flight MS804 vanished off the radar 16 km into Egyptian airspace as it was crossing the Mediterranean at 2:45 AM Cairo time en route from Paris to Cairo.   

The Airbus 320 airliner had 56 passengers on board – 30 Egyptians, 15 French nationals, two Iraqi nationals, a British national, a Saudi national, a Portuguese national, a Belgian, a Kuwaiti, a Chadian, an Algerian, and a Canadian. It also had a 10-member crew on board.