Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo made ‘sharp turns and plunged’
An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said. Egyptian aviation officials has now confirmed the flight from Paris to Cairo crashed.
During a news conference Thursday morning, a spokesman for EgyptAir says there are many theories as to what happened, but their priority is finding the plane and the wreckage before reaching conclusions. But Sherif Fathi Egypt’s civil aviation minister has said the possibility of a terror attack is much more “stronger” than technical failure. The EgyptAir flight en route from Paris to Cairo made two sharp turns before plunging into the Mediterranean Sea, according to Greece’s defence minister.
Fathi added that no wreckage had yet been found but latest reports suggest search teams have sighted wreckage from the Airbus 320 plane. The spokesman says the search is continuing by land and sea, and intelligence Services are involved. At this time, they do not know what caused the crash, but their first responsibility is to the families of the passengers and crew. A hotel in Cairo has been rented, and families in France will be flown into Egypt and can stay as long as necessary. EgyptAir Flight 804 was lost from radar at 2:45 a.m. local time when it was flying at 37,000 feet, the airline said. It said the Airbus A320 had vanished 10 miles (16 kilometers) after it entered Egyptian airspace. EgyptAir later confirmed that one of the plane’s emergency devices sent a distress signal approximately two hours after it vanished. Egyptian armed forces are helping in the search for debris.
The plane most likely crashed into the sea, said Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian civil aviation authority, according to a report by the Abu Dhabibased SkyNews Arabia. Egyptian military aircraft were searching for the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew members. The pilot had 6,000 flight hours. Earlier, the airline said 69 people were on board. EgyptAir later said those on board included 15 French passengers, 30 Egyptians, one Briton, two Iraqis, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Belgian, one Algerian and one Canadian. The Paris airport authority and the French civil aviation authority would not immediately comment. French president Francois Hollande spoke with Egyptian president AbdelFattah el-Sissi on the phone and agreed to “closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances” in which the EgyptAir flight disappeared, according to a statement issued in Paris. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said no scenario could be ruled out at the moment as for what caused the plane to disappear. France, he told RTL radio, was “ready” to join the search operation if Egyptian authorities requested his country’s assistance.
Around 15 relatives of passengers on board the missing flight have arrived at Cairo airport. Airport authorities brought doctors to the scene after several distressed family members collapsed. Neither France’s Foreign Ministry nor Interior Ministry would comment on the disappearance or on whether it could have been an attack. France remains under a state of emergency after Islamic extremist attacks killed 130 people in a spree of attacks in November claimed by the extremist Islamic State group.
Greece joined the search and rescue operation for the EgyptAir flight with two aircraft: one C-130 and one early warning aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said. They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations. 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.
The incident renewed security concerns at Egyptian airports after a Russian passenger plane crashed in Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for planting it.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: My thoughts are with the family and friends of all those missing following the disappearance of EgyptAir’s flight MS804. We are in close contact with Egyptian and French authorities and have offered the Egyptian authorities our support in their search and rescue efforts. We know that one British passport holder boarded the flight in Paris and our staff are providing support and assistance to the family at this difficult time. We will continue to help in any way we can.
Britain has offered assistance in the search for EgyptAir flight MS804. Air Accidents Investigation Branch Chief Inspector Keith Conradi said: “We were saddened to hear that EgyptAir flight MS804 was reported missing this morning. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has offered to assist the Egyptian authorities with their investigation.” In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard, U.S. investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downward. But Egyptian officials rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting some mechanical reason caused the crash. Additional reports by AP Cairo.
