Greek civil aviation chief Constantinos Litzerakos said the pilot had mentioned no problem in his last communication.
“The flight controllers contacted the pilot at a height of 37,000 feet… he did not mention a problem,” he said.
Personal belongings and parts of the Airbus A320 were spotted by teams searching the sea off Egypt’s northern coast about 290 kilometres (180 miles) from the city of Alexandria, the military said.
Kammenos said the teams, which include multinational aircraft and ships, had found “a body part, two seats and one or more items of luggage”.
The passengers included 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, two Iraqis, two Canadians, and citizens from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. They included a boy and two babies.
Seven crew members and three security personnel were also on board.
The European Space Agency said one of its satellites had on Thursday spotted an oil slick about 40 kilometres southeast of the plane’s last known location.
In October, foreign governments issued travel warnings for Egypt and demanded a review of security at its airports after the Islamic State group said it downed the Russian airliner over Sinai with a bomb concealed in a soda can that had been smuggled on the plane.
IS has been waging a deadly insurgency against Egyptian security forces and has claimed attacks in both France and Egypt.
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