becky anderson live for us in cairo.orting, and we'll stay in touch. >> our breaking news coverage of the search for egyptair flight 804 continues from paris and cairo after this short break. you're watching cnn. we're live in atlanta. >>> the disappearance of egyptair 804 remains a mystery as this second day of searching is under way. crews are combing the mediterranean where it is presumed to have crashed. a short time ago, greece announced it was pulling its ships back from the search area, but it is still offering air support in search. >> france's foreign minister says all possibilities for the flight's disappearance are being examined, including the possibility of terrorism. >> planes have long been the target of terrorism, we can only speculate about the fate of flight 804. >> but terrorists have gotten creative in bringing down aircraft. randi kaye has this report for us. >> reporter: december, three months after the 9/11 attacks. a flight suddenly in trouble. passenger richard reed was attempting to detonate a p

we want to start in egypt with cnn's becky anderson live at cairo international airport. becky. >> reporter: christine, the egyptians said it is more likely this plane was downed by a terrorism act than it was by a technical fault. of course, at present, this is still a missing plane. a search and rescue operation significant in its scope, still ongoing. it is still officially search and rescue. although with a little less help from greek authorities than that which the egyptians had yesterday. this search and rescue is run by the egyptians. the greek authorities in the past couple hours have pulled the frigate out of the search and rescue which had been involved in the past 24 hours or so. they also said that the zone where the search and rescue is going on is too far away for greek cot guard to be involved. this is something like 230 kilometers southeast of crete island. the greeks said there a c-130 aircraft involved and other aircraft stationed in crete. the french investigators have arrived here at cairo airport this morning and a technical investigator from airbus, w

we have becky anderson in cairo egypt, and richard quest is joining us from beijing, and richard, we will start with you, and 24 hours now on, richard, and there are still some basis questions which we don't have answers to, and the officials don't even seem to know where the debris may be. >> yes. john, you know, when you are putting it like that, you can sort of raise an eyebrow and say, gosh, how can you not know where the plane is, but that is a wider issue in aviation. to any of us who cover this all of the time, this is not at all surprising. 24 hours for a plane that is lost over a large body of water such as the mediterranean sea is not unusual. you go back to the last known position, and it will take you hours to gets a sets of planes and ships into the area, and you are scouring the water for hours for debris to which you can work backward backwards. if you are fortunate, you will find a large piece of fuselage quickly. if you are unlucky, it is days if not weeks. two examples, 447 was in the south atlantic and it took them four days before they found a major piece. asia, t

we start in cairo with becky anderson at cairo international airport. becky. >> reporter: this is potentially a very significant development. were it to be true. this will be the first, i guess, bit of information that those who have been gathered here, the relatives and family of the 66 people on board, majority of whom were egyptian and french nationals. it will come as shocking news to them. given that this has until this point, been still a search and rescue operation being run by the egyptians in conjunction with the gsreek and help from the british and from the french and french investigators arriving here to the airport just in the past couple hours. by the cypriots and italians. enormous operation. the president of egypt insisted and demanded that this search be intensified. he pulled in assets from aviation and from the military here and from the navy. were this to be a fact and we are still waiting. we have only heard this from the spokesman for the military here in egypt. awaiting to get more detail on this. were this to be true, this would cl

cnn's becky anderson is live for us in cairo. nic robertson international d diplomatic reporter is in crete. becky you interviewed the egyptian for many. they were first out of the gate saying this was likely terrorism. i wonder if today the foreign minister shares that view? >> they haven't ruled it out. but they are keeping an open mind. and rightly so i think. we talked about a lot of issues, not least this ongoing search in the mediterranean. he said it isn't clear how long that will take. but did say that egypt was very grateful for the international effort and help. that is being implemented there and the you thiu.s. amongst otht was involve. he said it's important now they retrieve the black box and data programming in order they can begin to provide some sort of picture of what happened and why. not least the foreign minister told me to provide some sort of closure for the families of the victims. lest we forget there were 66 souls on board this flight. we also talked about the claims of smoke in the cabin of the aircraft.

cnn's becky anderson is in cairo, max foster, they both join me now. ptian authorities who you've been talking to, they were quickly to suggest the crash was likely terror related. what is the latest on the investigation on the egyptian end? >> reporter: well, it is still unclear what happened and why. i think it is very clear from egyptian authorities now that they are keeping an open mind as to what happened. we discussed the search and recovery effort, as you have just described. human remains, passengers' belongings, aircraft equipment and seats now being recovered. this is a massive effort. the waters are deep, we're talking something like 11,000 feet, and they have no idea, as of yet, exactly where the plane lies within the body of the mediterranean. so at this point, the foreign minister who spoke to me earlier on said it isn't clear how long this will take. but what he did say is that he is grateful to his international partners who have been helping him, what is a coordinated effort to try and recover the black boxes and the data that will prov

the full interview on "connect the world" with becky anderson at 4:00 p.m. in london and 11:00 p.m.ng. only here on cnn. >>> top afghan leader likely been killed in a drone strike. he was targeted while traveling in pakistan near the afghanistan border. the white house is waiting for confirmation for the death of mullah mansour. it may not necessarily disrupt taliban operations. >> you see leaders taken out by drone strikes in many countries frequently whether it's iraq or syria or yemen, in afghanistan and pakistan and quickly pick another successor and they'll go on and sometimes they won't be weaken. they will continue. the hope here is that the leader is essential enough to the operation that it will at least affect operations for some time, but no one's under the impression, even u.s. officials, that by killing this man, it's the end of this organization. they know it's a battle that might take years and you have a strike like this, but at the same time, the taliban has been able to carry out numerous attacks in and around the country with great effect. >> u.s. officials say a

all right, becky anderson, thank you so much. let's bring in cnn's nic robertson on the greek island of crete. nick, searchers now having to deal with deteriorating weather conditions as they look for more wreckage from that plane. describe the conditions. what are they up against? >> reporter: well, they're up against increasing winds. they're up against rougher seas. you look out to the sea here. there are more white tops ton waves. the dips between the waves, the swell is getting bigger. as we've seen, the recovery so far has only found pieces of debris that are relatively small. and remember what you're looking at on the side, we're about 100 miles out where the swells are much greater. the wind will make it much harder to see those small pieces of debris. yesterday, this was much calmer, much flatter, much easier environment for recovery. so it's going to slow it down. but what we do know from the greek air force here, of course, they've got two c-130 military transport aircraft on standby to get involved again in the search

here's what he told cnn's becky anderson earlier. >> investigations in these cases are based on factsnd these procedures doesn't include a statement that has been written on a plane. because if it has been written on the plane, then we would have to examine the security procedure. our concern would be the security procedure, not what has been written on the plane. >> today, grieving family and friends said good-bye to the pilot of the plane. mohamed shoukair. egypt hawes deployed a submarine. crews have recovered pieces of wreckage including plane parts and passengers' personal belongin belongings. cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson is in cairo. he joins me now. what is the latest focus of the fwai investigation right now? >> reporter: the minister of aviation says the priority for the government is to recover the bodies. to recover the bodies, they need to find the black boxes. he also says that he feels under absolutely no pressure as far as the investigation side of this is concerned to make a determination about what caused the plane to come down, that he is going t

we have becky anderson in cairo egypt, and richard quest is joining

becky anderson is in paris, and beginning with you, senior egyptian official says they are confident, and we heard this hours after the plane disappeared, confident that that plane was brought down by an act of terror. now, without those black boxes, of course, and even without major pieces of wreckage, what makes them sure? we spoke to the egyptian foreign minister earlier today. >> i think now after the plane disappeared, they said that it was more likely so far they could tell, that this was terror related rather than a technical fault, but i think at this point as hours have continued, there was never anything to sub stannuate that. they admitted to that as did u.s. and others, but i think now as continuing and the plane debris is being found, clearly, the investigation continues, and they are keeping all lines of inquiry open at this point. i talked to the foreign minister just earlier on today in what was a wide ranging conversation. we talked about the search, for example, that's going on at present, and i asked him how long he thought that might take. he said that just wasn't

let's begin with becky anderson, live at cairo international airport. in that search, and what was a rescue operation now. clearly moving into what will be a search and recovery phase. a body part and an aircraft seat is what the greek defense ministry's spokesman has told cnn that they have been told by egyptian authorities. those egyptian authorities leading the search and rescue operation, in coordination with the greeks, with the brits, french, italians. this is what we know at this point. a sign egyptair flight 804 has been found, egyptian military spokesman says passenger belongings and part of the aircraft have been located north of the coastal city of alexandria. as the french foreign minister insists the paris airport from which the airbus departed was completely secure. >> translator: the government strengthened all the measures f following the january attacks. everything is being reenforced. >> serving as analysts in the investigation, operating under the theory that a bomb brought down the missing jet. but they have yet to find any indication