AKIPRESS.COM - The French Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis for civil aviation security (BEA) on Saturday confirmed reports of smoke alerts on board EgyptAir Flight MS804 shortly before the plane plunged in the Mediterranean with 66 people on board, reports France 24.

A BEA spokesman said messages from the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) indicated there was cabin smoke before the EgyptAir Airbus A320 crashed into the Mediterranean. But he warned that it was too early to interpret the data.

"The BEA confirms that there have been ACARS messages sent by the plane indicating that there was smoke in the cabin shortly before the break in data transmissions," a spokesman for the French aviation investigation industry told the AFP Saturday. "It’s too early to interpret and understand the causes of the accident until we have found either the wreckage or the [flight data and cockpit voice] recorders.”

The confirmation followed a report on the Aviation Herald website that the ACARS showed smoke alerts in the toilet and the aircraft’s electrics before the plane crashed. The Aviation Herald site, which tracks incidents in the aviation industry, said the information came from three independent channels.

Reports of the smoke alerts came as search teams continued to scour the area in the Mediterranean where EgyptAir Flight MS804 is believed to have crashed early Thursday.

Debris from the plane -- including human remains, wreckage and personal belongings of the passengers – has been found around 190 miles (306 kilometres) north of the Egyptian city of Alexandria, according to Egyptian authorities.

However the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders – also known as “the black box” -- have not yet been retrieved.