EGYPTAIR JET HAD TRAVELLED TO TERROR HOTSPOTS IN BRUSSELS, TUNIS AND ERITREA HOURS BEFORE CRASH
The EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean had flown to terror hotspots in Tunisia, Eritrea and Belgium in the days before the disaster, it has emerged.
The travel log of the Airbus A320 will likely form a major part of the investigation into the crash which experts say was most likely caused by a terror attack.
Internet site FlightRadar24 indicates the jet travelled to Tunis, Brussels and the Eritrean capital of Asmara in the two days before, leaving open the possibility that an explosive device could have been planted aboard prior to its arrival in France.
All destinations have been targeted by terror attacks or plagued by jihadist uprisings in recent months.
Tour of terror: Flight radar data showed how the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean had travelled to Tunis, Cairo, Eritrea and Brussels, all area targeted by Islamist militants
Brussels Airport and the city’s Metro station were targeted in March in ISIS suicide attacks that killed 32 people.
Those attacks have been linked to the same cell that killed 130 people in a November massacre in Paris, where flight MS804 took off last night.
More than 20 people were also killed in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, in March last year when two Islamist militants stormed the Bardo Museum.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian authorities said last week that they had thwarted a terror attack by Eritrean jihadists who trained and armed in Asmara.
If a bombing is established, the question for investigators will be how a device was possibly smuggled aboard a flight taking off from France’s busiest airport, Paris Charles de Gaulle, where security has been on high alert since last year’s jihadist attacks.
Aeronautics expert Gerard Feldzer said: ‘A bomb placed on board at (Paris) or in Cairo is always possible because it’s difficult to make your airport 100 per cent watertight, even in an airport with such tight surveillance as Roissy (Charles de Gaulle).’
