CAIRO: The head of Russia’s top domestic security agency said on Thursday the crashed Egyptian jet has apparently been brought down by a terror attack.

Alexander Bortnikov said that “in all likelihood it was a terror attack” causing the crash of the EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board, according to Russian news agencies.

Greek officials, meanwhile, reported that a Greek frigate searching for the missing aircraft discovered two large plastic floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of the island of Crete on Thursday.

The two objects appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red. They were spotted close to an area where a transponder signal was emitted earlier, the sources said.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi also said the possibility of a terror attack as the cause of the EgyptAir crash is “stronger” than technical failure. Fathi was responding to a reporter’s question during a press conference on Thursday in Cairo.

He said that he doesn’t want draw conclusions but that analysis points to terrorism as a cause with a higher probability.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has said the EgyptAir flight made abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar shortly after entering Cairo’s air traffic control area of responsibility.

Kammenos said the aircraft was 10-15 miles inside the Egyptian area and at an altitude of 37,000 feet. “It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360- degree turn toward the right, dropping from 38,000 to 15,000 feet and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet,” he said.

Greek civil aviation authorities said all appeared fine with the flight until the time when air traffic controllers were to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts. The pilot did not respond to their calls, and the aircraft then vanished from radars. Kammenos’ comments are the first indication of what might have happened after the aircraft entered Cairo’s air traffic control space.

Monstrous attack

Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service, called for a joint action to track down those responsible for that “monstrous attack.”

Last October, a Russian plane flying from Egypt crashed into the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said Egypt-Greek search for debris of crashed EgyptAir plane off Greek island of Karpathos is expanding.

Hours after the plane disappeared on Thursday, Fathi told reporters in Cairo that the diameter of the search area will widen, moving further south of the island.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s chief prosecutor Nabil Sadek said he has ordered an “urgent investigation” into crash. Sadek instructed the National Security Prosecutor to open an “extensive investigation” in the incident.

Greece’s defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said Greece has a submarine on standby which is participating in a NATO exercise about 100 miles (160 kms) away from the presumed crash area, while F-16 fighter jets stationed on Crete could also be used if necessary. The country already has a navy frigate, two military transport planes and a radar plane participating in the search and rescue operation, while he said Egypt had sent a C-130 military transport plane and two F-16s.

France is providing Falcon navy support aircraft, he said, while Greece has contacted the US and Russia, and the American side has offered and Greece has accepted the help of a maritime support aircraft.