Images emerge claiming to show EgyptAir plane before crash

Hours after EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed into the Mediterranean sea on Thursday, pictures and videos emerged on social media claiming to show images of the aircraft just before it crashed, and debris from the plane afterwards.

An Egyptian ship captain posted images on Facebook along with a message in Arabic translated as "I found a life jacket and debris from a chair on the plane."

Later a video started making the rounds on social media, showing what appeared to be pieces of plastic or metal floating on the surface of the sea.

As people began to discuss the images and video above, one more video began to be shared by social media users.This video appears to have been aired by Seven News Sydney but is yet to be verified independently.

This video appears to show the plane erupting into a fireball before disappearing from the sky.

Eyewitnesses called what they say a "ball in the sky."

A captain from a ship on the Mediterranean Sea claimed he saw "a flame in the sky" about 130 nautical miles south of the Greek island of Karpathos.

Authorities are investigating the ship captain's claim, according to a Greek Defence Ministry source.

On Friday the Egyptian military said that debris from the missing plane had been found 290 kilometres north of the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria.

The navy also found some of the passengers' belongings and is scouring the area looking for the plane's black box, the military said in a statement.

There was a total of 66 people on board the flight – 56 passengers and 10 cabin crew members.

Three French investigators and a technical expert from Airbus arrived in Cairo on Friday morning to take part in the ongoing investigation into the fate of the missing plane, airport sources said.

However, EgyptAir Vice President Ahmed Adel told CNN late on Thursday that the wreckage had not been found.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said that it was too early to rule out any cause for the crash. The aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure.