Greek military. White House Press Secretary josh earnest says the u. S. Is ready to step up even more if its needed. Its too early to definitively to say what may have caused this disaster. The investigation is under way. And investigators will consider all of the potential factors that could have contributed to the crash and, obviously, if theres an opportunity for the United States government to support those efforts then we will do that. So far there have been no credible claims from terrorist organizations. Interestingly both likely president ial nominees are assuming its terror. Donald trump tweeted it very early this morning saying the incident looks like yet another terrorist take. He did that about two hours before official word from investigators that came earlier this afternoon. Hillary clinton meanwhile during an interview with cnn also indicated thought it was terrorism. It does appear that it was an act of terrorism. Exactly how, of course, the investigation will have to determine. But once again shines a very bright light on the threats that we face from organized terror groups. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry indicated that greek authorities found wreckage, some sort of debris that may be part of the plane but now its not clear if that debris actually belongs to the missing airbus. Now search officials discovered these fragments near the greek island of karpathos. Search operation was focused about 130 nautical miles southeast of the area. Heres more on what we know. Last night flight ms804 took off from paris Charles De Gaulle airport at 8 09 local time. First two hours of the flight routine. Shortly after greek air Traffic Controllers cleared their flight path from the greek air space. They had cordial vocal contact with the pilot. Within 40 minutes controllers lost contact with the plane and then just few minutes after the plane entered into egyptian air space it swerved sharply and the flight signal disappeared from radar completely. Air controllers contacted egyptian authorities immediately and a joint searchandrescue operation got under way to see if they could find this plane. 12 different nationalities are represented on board the flight of 66 people, 30 are egyptian, 15 are french. 56 of those on board were passengers including three children. Seven crew members and three security personnel. Now all of this is information provide to us by egyptair. After several hours of searching the Mediterranean Sea officials are taking the night to regroup and do plan to resume at daybreak. So lets see if we can break down what we know right now. Lets start with the latest from our reporters on the ground in greece, paris and cairo. Lets go greece first. Obviously, now, we have two different reports about this debris found off of karpathos. What do you know . Reporter well as you can see the mystery is deepening here by the hour. Now it is the middle of the night here in crete and while a few hours ago we thought or were told by both the greek and egyptian authorities that the two pieces of debris that were found about 210 miles off the coast of this island of crete, were thought part of the missing aircraft. Now the head of the air incident Aviation Safety Authority here in greece is denying that saying they were not part of the airplane and that is making the situation for investigators really difficult because as you know the most important thing for investigators apart, of course, from recovering the bodies is the recovery of the black box of the airplane because thats the quickest and best way to find out what really happened on that plane. Was that human error, was it technical, mechanical failure, was it a bomb as it has been suggested. The black box could tell investigators right away. Theres a problem. Every hour that passes is an hour too late for investigators because it is out there in the mediterranean and it could just be the black box and wreckage of course could just sink deeper at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and debris can be and the away by the currents. Right now they have no idea at any point where they only have a general vicinity still. Are they still operating with this idea it might be 130 nautical miles part of the Mediterranean Sea they should search . Reporter thats all they got right now because thats where they lost contact with the plane. Its still a vast area of the Mediterranean Sea. Still like looking for a needle in a hay stack. But today when they found those pieces of debris that they thought was part of the plane, at least it has precise location where to look for more. But now that puts into question, that means investigators will be back to square one. Right now its dark. We have to wait for sun up. Lets go to paris. I want to get into the aspect of this of who was on that plane, who could have had access to the plane while it was there in paris and we talked about the flight, where this plane had been in the 48 hours previous to landing at Charles De Gaulle. This is a western airport that we here in the United States believe is a secure airport. So the idea that a bomb got put on it while in paris seems to be pretty frightening. Reporter yeah. Such a good question because thats where the spotlight will turn very quickly, if as it does appear they do pursue this line of inquiry through the question of whether there was an explosion on board and whether, in fact, this was caused by a bomb. If that is the conclusion and its interesting to note that you heard the egyptians first say that they thought it was more likely to be terror related and then the news from u. S. Intelligence officials that they suspect that there was an explosion. I think those two things may be connected. It does come to the conclusion that there was a bomb on board youre exactly right they are going to start asking, okay, how did that happen . Now we know about how bombs can be put on board planes in recent history. We know about somalia where they got a bomb on board because through airport workers. The bomb went off too early to cause a catastrophe on that plane. We know about the metrojet plane where the allegation is there was a bomb on board there with a soda can. Again, it would have to be, you would assume more sophisticated for them to achieve Something Like that if you might. Here at Charles De Gaulle airport in paris and if as some people are suggesting that some kind of explosive might have been able to be put on the plane before it reached here then it would have to be on a timer, have to be concealed well enough not to be discovered here. If that is what happened is more sophisticated than we have seen in recent years. Have they started the investigation at Charles De Gaulle . Meaning have they started questioning every single airport employee that touched that plane . Reporter they will have done without question. But they wont be telling us about that. What we do understand from one airport official they have increased security since the paris attacks even going back as far as charlie hebdo. They knew that air travel would be a target. We all know that the likes of isis or al qaeda would want to target planes. We know from the brusselss attack attack aviation is a target. In brussels effectively that was a relatively crude attack. A group of people walking in to the front of an airport with bombs and setting them off. This is a completely different thing and thats why french intelligence, u. S. Intelligence, intelligence agencies around the world, chuck, will be very, very concerned with this, trying to get answers. So, yes, they will be talking to everyone they possibly can to get to the truth as quickly as possible. Paris somehow touched by another terror incident again. Lets go to cairo, thats where well find bill neely. Bill, i feel like, i believe the last time you and i talked you were in care jobs we were dealing with an egyptair crash or potential terror attack at the time. That had to do excuse me a russian plane but had to do with another terrorist attack involving potentially egypt. What do we know on the ground in cairo . Reporter well, whatever way you look at it, chuck, egypt is at the center of this. It was an egypt airplane. Most of the passengers on board were egyptian and it crashed in egyptian waters. Whatever way you look at it, chuck, whatever happened to this plane it happened very, very quickly because the pilot had no time to make any may day call and frankly when a plane disappears quickly off radar screens when it twists and plummets in to the sea it does raise the suspepectre of terror. The cabinet minister would not rule out terrorism and the aviation minister said it was the most likely cause. Given egypts history of not saying too much those were two remarkable things to say. What i would say, chuck, putting the other argument, its curious if isis did do this that it hasnt released any claim of responsibility and taken any credit for it yet. And the second thing is, if youre a bomber at Charles De Gaulle airport and you have the choice of multiple airlines, american airlines, united airlines, air france, British Airways and you choose egyptair, i mean with 66 people on board there are some questions, its not exactly, i hate to put it like this, a target rich aircraft. I think there are counter arguments as well even if you accept the theory that this might be terrorism. Bill, what can you tell bus the three theres three security personnel. What does that mean . Does egypt, is it like the United States where egypt tries to have marshals on planes. Is this part of a regular security procedure that the Egyptian Government has or is this just it happened to be on this plane there were three security personnel . Reporter well, again, egypt doesnt reveal, especially not to journalists the details of its security plans, but, yes, we do know that Major Airlines including egyptair use armed air marshals and there were three on board which might strike some people as being, you know, fairly, a fairly high number for that, less than 60 passengers. Yeah. They are obviously guarding against one thing happening in the plane itself, but to go back to the crash that you mentioned earlier, the metrojet. Isis claimed it took down that plane with a small amount of explosives in a soda can and gave no other details. Site doesnt really take a great deal to take an airliner down. And a somalia plane, if you remember, had a hole blown in its side in february of this year, after a bomb exploded on a laptop. The suspected bomber was blown out from the side of the fuselage. It was thought that laptop was given to him in the departure line. So, look, aircraft and airports are favored targets of terrorists from, you know, from the middle east, from lockerbee, scotland. They tried to smuggle bombs on board in printer cartridges, underpants. You can kill a large number of people on the plane again with very few explosives. Again lets just stress at the minute were speck late. Were talking. We dont have the facts that would point towards a bomb, you know, as the egyptian Prime Minister said all options really are open. All right. Bill neely on the ground. Thanks very much. Lets go washington. Our justice correspondent, pete williams. Pete, i want to start with this. Perhaps the other as bill was going through the different counter arguments saying all right if this is a terrorist attack this makes it unusual. Well what also makes it unusual nobody is taking credit. Reporter yeah. Im not the worlds leading expert on creditology how long you have to wait before somebody takes credit for it to be credible. Youre right. Its not entirely true, there have been some people who claim credit but those have been dismissed as simply after the fact kind of statements. But the fact remains here that u. S. Intelligence officials, members of congress who have been briefed, Law Enforcement people say they just dont know what happened here, too soon to tell, not enough information. There is some conflicting data as you would expect in the early phases of this, the u. S. Military satellites, that look for bright flashes, these are the satellites that detect Ballistic Missile launches. Thats why they are up there. They did not pick up any bright flashes at the time the plane went down. Were told by other officials that other data does indicate the possibility of an explosion at the time, but, of course, even if there was an explosion and no one is saying there was for sure but even if there was that doesnt tell you anything about what caused it. So its just way too soon here. Nobody knows what happened. I think one thing thats interesting is that u. S. Officials take some comfort in the fact that the french will be heavily involved in this investigation because they have great confidence in their abilities here. When it comes to crash and airplane they are basically as good as our folks are. They may argue they are better than us. Reporter well, yeah. Who is better than whom, the fact is this is not going to be a u. S. Investigation. The u. S. Will provide whatever sheep requested but it will be in a support mode. So ace think your other folks have pointed out egypt will have a big lead in this because its their plane. They have a lot of passengers on board. French will be involved because the plane left from Charles De Gaulle. Theres confidence that the investigation will be well done once they can get their hands on any evidence. Counter to the lack of evidence when it was the egyptian and russian with the metrojet liner when only those two were involved in that investigation. Fair to say . Reporter yeah. Pete williams, thank you, sir. Up next well look at possible scenarios that could have brought down this airliner and later terror concerns following todays incident. Stay with us. Why do so many businesses rely on the Us Postal Service . Because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. Thats why we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Here, there, everywhere. United states Postal Service priority you billions are spent to confuse and, dare i say it, flummox the american public. Save 16 on Car Insurance. Switch now. Well at compare. Com, we say enoughs enough. So we constantly scrutinize millions of rates. Answering the question once and for all, who has the lowest. Just go to compare. Com and get up to 50 free quotes. Choose the lowest, and hit purchase. So you can get back to whatever it is you civilians do when youre not thinking about Car Insurance. Compare. Com so as authorities work to determine exactly what took down egyptair flight ms804 that was coming from paris to cairo, Charles De Gaulle airport has st. Crisis center for families of passengers who dont wait for new information. 66 people were on board. So far no signs of survivors. Of course, we dont know where the plane is. Those reports of debris no longer based in fact. American National Security and aviation experts are working with french, greek and egyptian authorities to help in the search and in the investigation. Just ahead well get new insight from our own team of terrorism and aviation experts. Keep it right here. The call just came in. Shes about to arrive. And with her, a flood of potential patients. A deluge of digital records. Xrays, mris. All on account. Of penelope. But with the help of at t, and a network that scales up and down ondemand, this hospital can be ready. Giving them the agility to be flexible reliable. Because no one knows like at t. Well have a free waffle. Some free bacon. Free eggs. Should we add free syrup . You know what, lets treat ourselves. Enjoy free hot breakfast with a tall glass of free wifi. Get up to 20 percent off as a Hilton Hhonors member at hampton. Com. I am totally blind. I lost my sight in afghanistan. If youre totally blind, you may also be struggling with non24. Calling 8448442424. Or visit my24info. Com. Theres nothing we can rule in or rule out. If theres information we can provide in the future well provide it. This is still early in the investigation. The egyptians and french are taking the lead and well be as supportive as we can be but we have nothing at this point that leads us to any conclusions. Were back. Were following the latest on egyptian air flight 804. You just heard there from the pentagon spokesperson who earlier today said the investigation is still very much under way. Im joined by Kerry Sanders and a former ntsb investigator and msnbc news aviation safety analyst and john cox an nbc news analyst. Kerry let me start with you. Obviously, the search is on for the black box and you have one with you. Explain everything that is in there, tell us everything you got there with all your gadgets. Let me show you this. This is heavy. This is called a black box but actually orange. The reason why theres a race to find it is because it pings. The battery inside pings. The battery is not eternal. It will eventually run out. It has flight recorder data and records conversation. The conversations recorded are beyond the conversations of just the pilot communicating to first the air Traffic Control in greece and then we know that there was no received communication in. Egypt. But its also an open mike situation where it can record some of the conversations inside the cockpit so its possible if this can be recovered then they can listen to the conversations or maybe hear a sound or maybe simply goes silent. Its unclear. Finding this is indeed a challenge. Now this is primarily an effort by the greek, egyptians and french but we do have the u. S. Participation with a naval ship thats come out of sicily from the base there and flying over and dropping down susanna buoys. They think it water and look across the water to see if it can pick up some debris. Its a little bit of challenge sometimes when the sea state gets rough because the waves make it hard to see. That