EgyptAir Flight MS804 went missing while flying from Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, to Cairo, Egypt, the airline said - the flight left late Wednesday night Paris time.
There was no distress call before the flight went missing from radar. Officials said search and rescue teams, from both Greece and Egypt, have reached the last known location of the plane and are searching for debris.This story is still developing. Here’s what you need to know:
There were 56 passengers and 10 crew on the plane
The airline says there are 56 passengers and 10 crew onboard the Airbus A320-232 plane. The passengers include 53 adults, two infants and one child.
The crew includes two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three security guards. EgyptAir tweeted the nationalities of the passengers, which include 30 Egyptians, 15 French and two Iraqis.
There is one person on board from each of the following nations: Britain, Belgium, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Canada.
An EgyptAir representative said that the pilot has 6,000 flying hours and the first officer has 4,000 flying hours. EgyptAir previously said there were 69 people on board.
The plane disappeared 175 miles from the Egyptian Coast
EgyptAir says Flight MS804 lost contact with radar above the Mediterranean Sea at about 175 miles, or 280km, from the Egyptian seacoast, at 2:30 a.m. local time.
A ship captain in the Mediterranean told the Greek defense ministry he saw a “flame in the sky” about 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos. The airline said in a previous tweet, which was also in Arabic, that the plane lost contact with radar at 02:45 Cairo time at a height of 37,000 feet.
EgyptAir initially said the plane was 80 miles, or 10 minutes, from Egyptian airspace. It later said the plane was 10 miles into Egyptian airspace. “They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished.” Authorities said air traffic controllers last spoke to the cockpit over Greece and then lost contact.
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| EgyptAir Flight MS804: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know |
This picture taken on May 19, 2016, shows an Egyptair Airbus A330 from Cairo taxiing at the Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport near Paris after its landing a few hours after the MS804 Egyptair flight crashed into the Mediterranean. (Getty)
The cause of the crash, whether it was a technical issue, a terrorist attack or another cause, has not yet been determined, authorities say.
French President Francois Hollande said, “We will draw conclusions when we have the truth about what happened. Whether it was an accident, or whether it was – and it’s something that is on our minds – terrorism.”
Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister, Sherif Fathi, told the Associated Press, “The possibility of having a different action or a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure.”
The plane is more than 12 years old The plane, an Airbus A320, was built in France and delivered in 2003 and is 12 years and 9 months old, according to JetPhotos.net. You can see a photo of the missing plane above.
It’s registration is SU-GCC. The plane flew from Cairo to Paris earlier on May 18 and was making a return trip, according to FlightRadar24.
The plane had also flown from Asmara, Eritrea, where it had been overnight, to Cairo, and then from Cairo to Tunis, Tunisia. From there, it flew back to Cairo and then to Paris. Routine maintenance checks were performed on the plane before the final flight from Paris to Cairo. - Online Sources
