The FBI is investigating a possible link between a Los Angeles hotel room where one of the crew members stayed and Egyptair flight 990, the New York Times reported yesterday.
A crew member of the doomed Boeing 767 had complained to hotel management that someone had touched his suitcase in his room, according to the newspaper, citing a police source.
The airliner had travelled from Los Angeles to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport for a stopover before taking off for Cairo on Sunday.
Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts, early on Sunday, killing all 217 people aboard.
Police searching the hotel room turned up sugar and electrical wires, which were sent to FBI laboratories for analysis, according to the New York Times. Investigators, however, do not believe the materials could be used to manufacture a bomb, the newspaper said.
Yesterday the US navy rescue and salvage ship USS Grapple raced to beat a storm to the marine search site to find the airliner's data recorders and clues on what caused the crash.
The National Weather Service said the region around Nantucket would be lashed by 40 m.p.h. winds, heavy rains and 15 ft waves last night.
Coast Guard Rear Admiral Richard Larrabee said: "We believe at this point it's in everyone's best interest to no longer think we will find survivors."
In the first 48 hours after the crash, searchers found one body, bits of wreckage, personal items and evidence of human remains, the US Coast Guard said.
On Monday night the Coast Guard brought in what the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) said was "a significant piece" of the aircraft.
The Boeing Co said it had suspended delivery of four commercial jet models and will retrofit hundreds of planes already in service to correct a flaw in a cockpit shield that failed federal flame tests.
The announcement, the company said, was unrelated to the air crash. Egypt's Defence Ministry confirmed yesterday evening that 33 military officers were on board the Egyptair flight.
"The plane was carrying 33 officers from the Egyptian armed forces on their way to Cairo after the end of training duties as part of the military co-operation plan between the United States and Egypt," a ministry statement said.
The statement said most of the officers were low-ranking officers in the air force, navy and other branches.