On Thursday, EgyptAir reported that wreckage from the plane, including life jackets, had been found near the Greek island of Karpathos by the Greek authorities.
But EgyptAir's vice chairman Ahmed Adel later told CNN that the items were not from flight MS804.
He said: "We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane. So the search and rescue is still going on."
Before it disappeared from radar screens around 2.45am Cairo time (12.45am GMT), the plane spun all the way around and suddenly lost altitude.
Egyptian and Russian officials said it may have been brought down by terrorists, and there are no signs of survivors.
Egyptian and Greek authorities in ships and planes searched the suspected crash area throughout the day for traces of the airliner or its victims, with more help on the way from the US, Britain and France.
Civil aviation minister Sherif Fathi said the disaster was still being investigated but the possibility it was a terror attack "is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure".
Alexander Bortnikov, chief of Russia's top domestic security agency, said: "In all likelihood it was a terror attack."
Among those on board were a child and two babies, EgyptAir said. The airline said the 56 passengers included 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis and one each from Britain, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The Airbus A320 was built in 2003 and was flying at 37,000ft, the airline said on Twitter.
It tweeted that the pilot had logged 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 hours on the A320, and the co-pilot had logged 2,766 hours.
There was confusion over whether a distress signal had been sent by the Airbus A320.
Egypt's civil aviation authority said one was received at 4.26am local time, believed to be an automated message rather than one sent by the pilot.
But in a statement on its website, the Egyptian military said later it had received no distress message from the aircraft .
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the Foreign Office was in close contact with Egyptian and French authorities and offered the Egyptian authorities support with the search and rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, French president Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace.
He also spoke to Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi by telephone and agreed to "closely co-operate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances" surrounding the disaster".
Press Association
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