Egypt: Air flight disappears from radar between Paris and Cairo

An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew crashed in the Mediterranean sea early Thursday morning, according to a Greek airport source.

EgyptAir Flight 804 was lost from radar at 2:30am local time when it was flying at 37,000 feet.

The plane crashed in the Mediterranean sea, according to a Greek airport source.
The plane was an Airbus 320. The captain has 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320 while the copilot has 2,766.

The 56 passengers on the plane included 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis and one passenger each from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Portugal, Algeria, Canada and Kuwait.

EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo crashes in Mediterranean

There were conflicting reports about whether or not the plane sent a distress signal. Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted an airport official as saying that the pilot did not send a distress call, and that the last contact with the plane was 10 minutes before it disappeared from radar. It did not identify the official.

However EgyptAir said that rescue services from the Egyptian armed forces reported receiving a distress signal at 04:26am, two hours after the last radar contact.
The plane most likely crashed into the sea, Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian civil aviation authority, said according to a report by SkyNews Arabia. However, Raslan later told the Associated

Press that it was too early to tell if the plane had crashed, and denied speaking to SkyNews Arabia.
A Greek defence ministry source said authorities were also investigating an account from the captain of a merchant ship who reported a "flame in the sky" some 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos.

‘No theory can be ruled out’

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls told RTL radio that "no theory can be ruled out" in investigating the flight’s disappearance.
President François Hollande called his Egyptian counterpart and the leaders agreed to "cooperate closely" to establish what happened to the plane.

Hollande also set up a crisis meeting of top ministers, including Valls, the foreign, defence and interior ministers, according to sources close to his Elysée office.
An emergency centre has also been established at Paris's main airport attended by representatives of the airline and the Egyptian embassy, senior French airport official Philippe Riffault said.

The incident renewed security concerns months after a Russian passenger plane was blown out of the sky over the Sinai Peninsula. The Russian plane crashed in Sinai on October 31, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for planting it.

An EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus in March. A man who admitted to the hijacking and is described by Cypriot authorities as "psychologically unstable" is in custody in Cyprus.

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 1990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard, US investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downwards. But Egyptian officials rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting some mechanical reason caused the crash.

Egyptian officials are due to hold a press conference at 1pm local time (GMT +2)
EgyptAir is offering toll-free numbers for passengers' relatives to call for more information: 080077770000 from any landline in Egypt, and +202 25989320 from any mobile phone or from outside Egypt.