By Britt Nelson

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

Just as soon as EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday presidential candidate Republican Donald Trump — without any real evidence — claimed the tragic incident to be “one-hundred percent terrorism.” He is probably right.

Some 66 crew and passengers took off from Paris headed for Cairo and plummeted from 38,000 feet into the sea about 180 miles off the coast of Egypt never sending a distress signal. EgyptAir on Sunday released the final words from the pilot shortly before the plane disappeared from radar. The recording showed the pilot was calm and routine in what he said with no indication of trouble.

What is known is small pieces of debris, parts of seats and passenger luggage from the plane have been recovered from the surface of the sea along with gruesome body parts, according to CNN.

The flight data recorders known as ‘black boxes’ are certainly at the bottom of the ocean some 8,000 to 10,000 feet deep in that area. When these black boxes are recovered they should reveal the truth about the crash, but in the meantime it’s all political at this point.

Trump won’t be proven right or wrong for a long time to come. The main wreckage has yet to be located, let alone arrange for deep-sea exploration and recovery equipment to be brought to the site to survey the debris field and come up with plans to recover the black boxes and bodies of the victims. This slow process takes time, a lot of time.

Over the weekend search planes and ships from Egypt and five other countries — Greece, Britain, France, the United States and Cyprus – combed a large area of the eastern Mediterranean looking for more debris and listening for the “pings” from the black boxes , which can be heard up to 20,000 feet deep but only for 30 days. So far, no “pings” have been detected, said CNN.

Trump was right to jump on this airplane crash and express his own opinion right off the bat, when others such as Democrat and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said long after Trump’s comments that the crash “appeared to be” terror related. There is a difference in their responses to what is obvious to many people: that Flight 804 was blown out of the sky. Clinton waited to see what others were saying at home and abroad about the crash before she commented, but Trump did not.

As of Sunday, no known terror group has claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft.

Trump and Clinton along with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will again be on voters’ minds on June 7 as six other states hold primaries in California, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and New Mexico.

By far, Clinton holds the delegate lead over Sanders and she will secure the Democratic nomination for president on June 7 with more than enough delegates, but Sanders vows to fight on all the way to the national convention to be held July 25-28 in Philadelphia. Sanders’ supporters are organizing “OccupyDNC” protests planned for the convention, according to social media and numerous websites.

Sanders released a statement Saturday on social media:

“This is the beginning of the final push to win California. But we are going to fight for every last vote, because every delegate we win is a statement of public support for the values we share. The primaries are just around the corner … I come from the working class of this country, and I will be damned if we allow the Republican Party, who represent the rich and powerful, to win the votes of working class Americans. It is my belief that the candidate best prepared to stop Donald Trump from winning the White House is the candidate who supports a $15 federal minimum wage, who stands on picket lines with striking workers, and who will fight to take our democracy back from the billionaire class.”

Trump, meanwhile, has been making amends within the Republican Party. His former detractors are becoming supporters and they are presenting a more unified force against Clinton.

“There is tremendous unity happening in the party, that’s the big story,” Trump said Sunday on Fox & Friends, although there was no mention about the top 50 GOP donors who are still shy about supporting him. An ABC News national poll shows Clinton and Trump are neck and neck at 46 percent for Trump and 44 percent for Clinton. While the Real Clear Politics poll average shows Trump slightly ahead with 43.4 percent to Clinton’s 43.2 percent. Clinton is going to have her hands full against Trump, but she is still dealing with that pesky Sanders nipping at her heels.

Just after the crash of Flight 804, Trump received the coveted endorsement of the powerful National Rifle Association. “I was honored to get this endorsement…the most powerful endorsement in all of politics…they want America to be great again.” During Trump’s speech before the NRA, he received numerous standing ovations.

The Clinton campaign continues to demand that Sanders quit the race and get out of the way. No matter what happens, Sanders will walk into the Democratic National Convention standing tall and casting a shadow over Clinton.

About the author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.