EgyptAir plane carrying 66 has crashed
An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed in the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday morning off the Greek island of Crete, Egyptian and Greek officials said.Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash. "We cannot rule anything out," he told reporters at Cairo airport.
EgyptAir Flight 804 was lost from radar at around 2:45 a.m. local time when it was flying at 37,000 feet, according to the airline. It said the Airbus A320 vanished 10 miles (16 kilometers) after it entered Egyptian airspace, around 280 kilometers (175 miles) off Egypt's coastline north of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Egyptian aviation officials said the plane crashed and that a search for debris was now underway.
A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight
804 that crashed, reacts as she makes a phone call at Charles de Gaulle
Airport outside of Paris, Thursday, May 19, 2016. Egyptian aviation
officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers
and crew on board has crashed. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Konstantinos Lintzerakos , director of Greece Civil Aviation Authority, gave a roughly similar account to that given by EgyptAir. In comments to the private Antenna television, he said Greek air traffic controllers were in contact with the pilot who reported no problems as the aircraft cruised at 37,000 feet, traveling at 519 mph (830 kilometers per hour).
The controllers tried to make contact with the pilot 10 miles (16 kilometers) before the plane exited the Greek Flight Information Region, or FIR. The pilot did not respond, he said, and they continued to try to speak to him until 3:29 a.m. local time (2:29 a.m. Egyptian time) when the plane disappeared from the radar inside Egypt's FIR, 11 kilometers (7 miles) southeast of the island of Crete.
Egyptian military aircraft and navy ships were taking part in a search operation off Egypt's Mediterranean coast to locate the debris of the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew members. The pilot had more than 6,000 flight hours.
Greece also joined the search and rescue operation with two aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said. They said that helicopters were on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault offered to send military planes and boats to join the Egyptian search for wreckage.
"We are at the disposition of the Egyptian authorities with our military capacities, with our planes, our boats to help in the search for this plane," he said. He spoke after French President Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace.
Hollande spoke with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on the phone and agreed to "closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances" surrounding the incident, according to a statement issued in Paris.
In Cairo, el-Sissi convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, the country's highest security body. The council includes the prime minister and the defense, foreign and interior ministers in addition to the chiefs of the intelligence agencies.
Those on board, according to EgyptAir, included 15 French passengers, 30 Egyptians, two Iraqis, one Briton, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Belgian, one Algerian and one Canadian. Ayrault confirmed that 15 French citizens were on board.
Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted an airport official as saying the pilot did not send a distress call, and that last contact with the plane was made 10 minutes before it disappeared from radar. It did not identify the official.
Airbus is aware of the disappearance, but "we have no official information at this stage of the certitude of an accident," the company's spokesman Jacques Rocca said.
The Paris airport authority and the French civil aviation authority would not immediately comment.
Queries about the missing plane sent out to the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency were not returned early Thursday.
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.
In Paris, relatives of passengers on the EgyptAir flight started arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside the French capital, where their loved ones were last seen alive.
A man and a woman, identified by airport staff as relatives of the flight's passengers, sat at an information desk near the EgyptAir counter Thursday at Charles de Gaulle Airport's Terminal 1. The woman was sobbing, holding her face in a handkerchief. They pair were led away by police and airport staff and did not speak to gathered journalists.
The Airbus A320 is a widely used twin-engine, single-aisle plane that operates on short and medium-haul routes. Nearly 4,000 A320s are currently in use around the world. The ubiquity of the A320 means the plane has been involved in several accidents over the years. The last deadly crash involving the plane was Germanwings Flight 9525, in which all 150 onboard died when one of the pilots intentionally crashed it in the French Alps.
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.
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.
___
Associated Press reporters Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Raphael Satter, Sylvie Corbet and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight
804 wipes her tears as she is comforted by unidentified people at
Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris, Thursday, May 19, 2016.
Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo
with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed. (AP Photo/Michel
Euler)
An Egyptian woman, who said her brother is among
passengers, grieves as she leaves the Egyptair in-flight service
building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport,
Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016. Egyptian aviation officials say an
EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board
has crashed. The officials say the search is now underway for the
debris. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight
804 reacts as she makes a phone call at Charles de Gaulle Airport
outside of Paris, Thursday, May 19, 2016. Egyptian aviation officials
say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew
on board has crashed. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Airport security staff stand near the EgyptAir
counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris, France, Thursday,
May 19, 2016. EgyptAir said a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared
from radar early Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Raphael Satter)
The Egyptair logo is seen at the arrivals
section of Cairo International Airport, Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016.
An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared
from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said. (AP Photo/Amr
Nabil)
Reporters gather in front of the EgyptAir
counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris on Thursday, May
19, 2016. An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people
disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said. (AP
Photo/Raphael Satter)
Egyptians gather outside the arrivals section of
Cairo International Airport, Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016. An EgyptAir
flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar
early Thursday morning, the airline said. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
A man walks past an EgyptAir counter at Charles
de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris, France, Thursday, May 19, 2016.
EgyptAir said a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar early
Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Raphael Satter)
Reporters gather in front of the EgyptAir
counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris on Thursday, May
19, 2016. An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people
disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said. (AP
Photo/Raphael Satter)
A frosted glass partition is seen at the
EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, France,
Thursday, May 19, 2016. EgyptAir said a flight from Paris to Cairo
disappeared from radar early Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Raphael Satter)
A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight
804 is escorted at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris,
Thursday, May 19, 2016. Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir
flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has
crashed. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight
804 is escorted at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris,
Thursday, May 19, 2016. Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir
flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has
crashed. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir
flight leave the Egyptair in-flight service building where they were
held at Cairo International Airport, Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016.
Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo
with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed. The officials say the
search is now underway for the debris. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir
flight leave the Egyptair in-flight service building where they were
held at Cairo International Airport, Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016.
Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo
with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed. The officials say the
search is now underway for the debris. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir
flight leave the in-flight service building where they were held at
Cairo International Airport, Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016. Egyptian
aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66
passengers and crew on board has crashed. The officials say the search
is now underway for the debris. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir
flight leave the Egyptair in-flight service building where they were
held at Cairo International Airport, Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016.
Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo
with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed. The officials say the
search is now underway for the debris. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
An Egyptian woman, who said her brother is among
passengers, grieves as she leaves the Egyptair in-flight service
building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport,
Egypt, Thursday, May 19, 2016. Egyptian aviation officials say an
EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board
has crashed. The officials say the search is now underway for the
debris. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight
804 wipes her tears as she is comforted by unidentified people at
Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris, Thursday, May 19, 2016.
Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo
with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed. (AP Photo/Michel
Euler)
FILE - In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016, file
photo, the hijacked aircraft of Egyptair after landing at Larnaca
airport, Cyprus. A similar Airbus A320 EgyptAir plane from Paris to
Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning,
the airline said. 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. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016, file
photo, the hijacked aircraft of Egyptair after landing at Larnaca
airport, Cyprus. A similar Airbus A320 EgyptAir plane from Paris to
Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning,
the airline said. 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. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016, file
photo, passengers leave the hijacked aircraft of Egyptair after landing
at Larnaca airport, Cyprus. A similar Airbus A320 EgyptAir plane from
Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday
morning, the airline said. 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. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
The Egyptair in-flight service building where
relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport, Egypt,
Thursday, May 19, 2016. An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying
66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline
said. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail talks to
reporters at Cairo International Airport, Thursday, May 19, 2016. He
said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror
attack caused the plane to crash. "We cannot rule anything out," he
said. An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew
on board crashed in the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday morning,
Egyptian aviation officials said. (AP Photo/Selman Elotefy)
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