Smoke detected in 'multiple parts' of EgyptAir MS804

The doomed EgyptAir plane that crashed last week did not show technical problems prior to take off in Paris, Egyptian investigation sources said on Tuesday.

66 people died in the crash including Richard Osman from Carmarthen.

Egypt's state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported that the aircraft showed no technical difficulties before taking off, citing an Aircraft Technical Log signed by its pilot. Al-Ahram published a scan of the technical log on its website.

The paper said EgyptAir flight transmitted 11 "electronic messages" on May 18 about three-and-a-half hours before disappearing from radar screens with 66 passengers and crew on board.

The first two messages indicated the engines were functional.

At 00.26GMT on May 19, the third message appeared and showed a rise in the temperature of the co-pilot's window.

The plane kept transmitting messages for the next three minutes before vanishing, Al-Ahram said.

Smoke was detected in multiple places on the EgyptAir plane before it crashed, French investigators said.

Spokesman Sebastien Barthe said the plane's automatic detection system sent messages indicating smoke a few minutes before it disappeared from radar on Thursday morning.

He said the messages "generally mean the start of a fire".

He added: "We are drawing no conclusions from this. Everything else is pure conjecture."

It follows reports on aviation industry website AVHerald.com on Friday that smoke was detected near the cockpit of the plane, which vanished over the Mediterranean.

Investigators also said the priority is to find the flight's data recorders of the missing jet.

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Richard Osman, the Welshman on board the EgyptAir flight which crashed in the Mediterranean, has been described as a devoted dad.

Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond says he must now be feared dead after wreckage of the plane was found.

Watch: Dean Thomas reports from Carmarthen

British foreign secretary Philip Hammond has said British national Richard Osman "must be feared dead" on the information available about crashed EgyptAir flight MS804.

He said: "I can announce sadly there was one British national, a tri-national in fact, British-Australian-Egyptian tri-national on board, Richard Osman, who must be feared dead on the basis of the information that we have at the moment."

Hammond added that he was meeting his Egyptian counterpart shortly to offer assistance.

A prayer service has been held for the victims of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804.

Wreckage from the airplane as well as human remains have been found according to the Egyptian military.

There were 56 passengers on board, including two babies and a child, as well as three EgyptAir security staff and seven cabin crew.

A local MP says people in Carmarthen are shocked by the news Richard Osman was a victim of the EgyptAir crash.

Mr Osman had attended Carmarthen's Queen Elizabeth school before going to Kingston University.

A Greek air safety official has said debris found in the Mediterranean Sea does not belong to the missing EgyptAir plane, according to the Associated Press.

Greek officials now believe these items "do not belong to an aircraft".

Earlier, the Egypt Civil Aviation authority reported "lifejackets" and "plastic items" were found floating near the site where EgyptAir MS804 was believed to have crashed.