Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry revealed Thursday that traces of explosives were discovered on some of the bodies of victims of EgyptAir Flight 804, which crashed in the Mediterranean Sea back in May, killing all 66 people on board.
The Airbus A320 was traveling from Paris to Cairo and approaching Egypt's northern coast when it crashed May 19.
According to the Associated Press, a criminal investigation will now be launched with the new evidence suggesting that a bomb may have brought down the plane.
"The central directorate of aircraft accident investigation received reports from the forensic medicine authority indicating traces of explosive materials found in some of the remains of the victims' bodies," the ministry said in a statement via The Guardian.
The disturbing discovery comes more than five months after an investigation into the doomed flight's cockpit recorders found that the pilots were battling a fire during the flight's final moments.
But given that most of the victims' bodies were recovered in July, the timing of the ministry's announcement has come under scrutiny. An unnamed Egyptian source told the Guardian that it "took so long to make an announcement" because French investigators wanted more time to study the findings.
Meanwhile, former chief aviation investigator with the ministry Shaker Kelada told the New York Times that "the timing is odd, and the results are very late."
So far, no one or group has claimed responsibility for the EgyptAir crash, which occurred just seven months after the Islamic State blew up Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
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