A Greek Air Force mechanic checks a plane before its use in the search operation of the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean (AFP Photo/Costas Metaxakis)

Egypt found wreckage including seats and luggage Friday from the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean, as investigators tried to unravel the mystery of why it swerved and plummeted into the sea.

Search teams spotted personal belongings of passengers and parts of the Airbus A320 about 290 kilometres (180 miles) north of Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, the military said.

The country's aviation minister has said a "terrorist attack" was a more likely cause than technical failure for the plane's disappearance on a flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board.

But French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said there was "absolutely no indication" of why the plane came down.

"We're looking at all possibilities, but none is being favoured over the others," he said.

The tragedy raised fears of a repeat of the bombing of a Russian passenger jet by the Islamic State jihadist group over Egypt last October that killed all 224 people on board.

In Cairo, French and Airbus investigators were to meet their Egyptian counterparts to lay the groundwork for their probe.

- Satellite spots oil slick -

Relatives of some of the passengers and crew met EgyptAir officials and later gathered at a hotel near Cairo airport to exchange information.

"They haven't died yet. No one knows. We're asking for God's mercy," said a woman in her 50s whose daughter had been on board.

The plane disappeared between the Greek island of Karpathos and the Egyptian coast in the early hours of Thursday, without its crew sending a distress signal.

It had turned sharply twice in Egyptian airspace before plunging 22,000 feet (6,700 metres) and vanishing from radar screens, said Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos.

A multi-national operation involving aircraft and ships has been launched to find the plane.

On Friday Kammenos said Egypt had told Greece that search teams had found "a body part, two seats and one or more items of luggage" in waters north of Alexandria.

Other search aircraft had "allegedly reported more findings in another area, but currently we have no official confirmation that they belong to the plane in question."

Later the European Space Agency said one of its satellites had on Thursday spotted an oil slick about 40 kilometres southeast of the plane's last known location.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had demanded an "intensified search" after the airline retracted a statement that wreckage had been found.

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By Samer al-Atrush

Source: Yahoo News