The victims of the Boeing 767 which crashed in the Atlantic with 217 people aboard included more than 30 Egyptian military officers, it was disclosed yesterday.
Among them were two brigadier-generals, a colonel, major and four air force officers who had been in the United States on a variety of missions, said security and aviation sources. Newspapers in Cairo were prevented by censors from reporting the officers' presence on the flight.
Relatives yesterday mourned the 217 passengers and crew as US officials admitted that there was no longer a chance of finding any survivors from Sunday's crash.
"We believe at this point it is in everyone's best interest to no longer expect we will find survivors," said Rear Admiral Richard Larrabee of the US coast guard.
As searchers focused on locating the wreckage, they found what Admiral Larrabee called a "significant piece" of the aircraft, large enough to require a crane. They also located a signal, which could be from one of the black boxes on the plane.
Only one body had been recovered by yesterday afternoon, but searchers were finding "evidence of further human remains", said Admiral Larrabee, who also led the search for John F Kennedy Jr's crashed plane in July.
He added that every available resource had been used in the search. "There was nothing we needed or wanted that we did not have in terms of searching for survivors."
Two of the plane's evacuation slides, life rafts, life jackets and seat cushions were recovered from the sea, along with clothing and passports.
The causes of the crash remain a mystery. EgyptAir flight 990 took off from Kennedy international airport at 1:19am local time and began its precipitous descent at 1.50am, while flying at 33,000ft. The plane dropped about 14,000ft - nearly three miles - in the next 36 seconds. The last radar signal was at 1.52am.
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall said: "We are beginning what may be a long investigation."
President Bill Clinton said in Oslo that he was not aware of any threats against airlines flying out of the United States and the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, also played down suggestions of sabotage.
"Sabotage? I don't think that. Or a terrorist act? I don't think that. But I cannot foretell. We are waiting until the investigation comes to an end," he told CNN television.
The Boeing, en route to Cairo, was carrying at least 106 Americans, 62 Egyptians, 22 Canadians, three Syrians, two Sudanese, one Chilean and 18 crew members
It had set off originally from Los Angeles. The only passenger to get off at New York was an airline consultant who counsels the families of accident victims.
Three people who had planned to be on the flight failed to board it early on Sunday. Egyptian businessman Abaza el-Sayed, 55, changed his mind two days earlier so that he could spend more time with his daughter and her family in Brooklyn.
Mohamed Abdul Maksood, an Egyptian religious leader, postponed his return to Cairo so that he could give a talk in New Jersey, which was itself cancelled. And Anga el-Sasty, an 80-year-old tourist, went home two days early.
The names of many of the victims were made public by friends and relatives yesterday, though no official list was released.
They included Claude Masson, 58, the deputy publisher of the Montreal daily newspaper La Presse. Quebec's premier, Lucien Bouchard, said Masson was an objective journalist with high standards who had spent his life keeping citizens informed.
Also on the flight was Virginia Chaplin, a newlywed at 72. A week after their first wedding anniversary, she and Richard Brokaw, a retired scientist, were heading for a trip down the Nile.
"He was just so lucky to find love again," said Brokaw's daughter Frances.