An EgyptAir jetliner en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard swerved wildly in flight and crashed in the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday, authorities said. Egyptian and Russian officials said it may have been brought down by terrorists.
There were no signs of survivors.
EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320 with 56 passengers and 10 crew members, went down about halfway between the Greek island of Crete and Egypt’s coastline, or around 175 miles offshore, after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport, authorities said.
A later Tweet by EgyptAir said the plane, which was travelling at an altitude of 37,000 feet, disappeared about 80 miles before it was due to enter Egyptian airspace.
Key facts about Airbus 320:
* The Airbus A320 is generally considered one of the safest passenger planes in service. A Boeing safety analysis in early 2015 said the A320 registered just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs.
* The first A320 entered service in 1988.
* There are nearly 4,000 A320s in operation worldwide.
* Airbus, a European plane-making group based in Toulouse, France, also makes nearly identical versions of the A320- the smaller A318 and A319 and the stretched A321. The entire fleet has accumulated nearly 180 million flight hours in over 98 million flights.
* The plane is certified to fly up to 39,000 feet, its maximum altitude before its rate of climb begins to erode. The plane has an absolute flight limit of 42,000 feet.
Here are the updates (all times in IST)
5:50 pm: Family members of four of the 66 victims who are believed to have died in the EgyptAir plane crash have held prayers for the dead in Cairo’s Sultan Hussein mosque.
Some of the relatives broke into tears as they prayed on Friday.
Among the victims of the crash of the EgyptAir flight 804 on Thursday were Salah Abu Laban, his wife Sahar Qouidar, their son Ghassan Abu Laban and daughter—in—law Reem al—Sebaei.
Their relative, Abdel—Rahman al—Nasry, told The Associated Press that “this is very hard for the family.”
A friend of the family, Magdi Badr, says- “We pray for the victims.”
4:50 pm: Greece’s defence minister says Greek authorities have received notification that Egyptian authorities had spotted a body part, two seats and suitcases during their search in the Mediterranean Sea for the crashed EgyptAir Flight 804.
Minister Panos Kammenos says Friday that the items were found in the search area slightly to the south of where the aircraft had vanished from radar signals early Thursday.
1:30 pm: The Egyptian presidency has expressed its “deep sadness and extreme regret” over the deaths of the 66 passengers and crew members aboard EgyptAir Flight 804.
The Friday statement is the first official recognition of the tragic crash of the missing plane. It came minutes after the Egyptian army announced for the first time that it located plane debris and passengers’ personal belongings some 190 miles (306 kilometers) north of the city of Alexandria in the Mediterranean Sea.
1:00 pm: Egyptian airport officials say that investigators will inspect the plane debris and personal belongings that the Egyptian army says it found 290 kilometers north of the city of Alexandria.
The officials said Friday that the chief Egyptian investigator Ayman el—Mokadam will be joined by French and British investigators as well as an expert from Airbus.
11:30 am: Egyptian airport officials say that three French and three British investigators and an Airbus technical expert have arrived in Cairo to join the investigation into what caused EgyptAir flight 804 to crash while carrying 66 people bound for Cairo from Paris.
Authorities are continuing to search a wide area to the south of the Greek island of Crete on Friday.
9:00 am: The Egyptian navy, air force and army are searching the sea to the north of Egypt’s coast, with French, Greek, British and US support.
An Egyptian military search boat takes part in a search operation for the EgyptAir plane that disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea in this still image taken from video. Photo: Reuters
8:30 am: A > massive search is underway for the wreckage of an EgyptAir plane. The search for EgyptAir Flight 804 was ongoing after reports that the plane’s wreckage had been found turned out to be false, prompting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to demand an “intensified search“.
4.17 am: EgyptAir Vice President Ahmed Adel told CNN that the wreckage had not been found.
“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,” Adel said.
02.22 am: The ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee told the Associated Press that there are conflicting reports about the conduct of the EgyptAir plane during its last minutes of flight, and there is nothing yet to confirm whether terrorism, structural failure or something else is the cause.
02.19 am: A U.S. review of satellite imagery so far has not produced any signs of an explosion aboard the EgyptAir flight that crashed on Thursday en route from Paris to Cairo, officials from multiple U.S. agencies told Reuters.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the conclusion was the result of a preliminary examination of imagery and cautioned against media reports suggesting the United States believed a bomb was responsible for the crash.
The United States has not ruled out any possible causes for the crash, including mechanical failure, terrorism or a deliberate act by the pilot or crew, they said.
02.01 am: France is sending three investigators to Cairo along with a technical expert from Airbus, to join the probe into the missing flight, Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said.
02.00 am: Alexander Bortnikov, chief of Russia’s top domestic security agency, also said — “In all likelihood it was a terror attack.”
There was no immediate claim from militants that they had downed the plane.
01.56 am: Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi cautioned that the disaster was still under investigation but said the possibility it was a terror attack “is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure.”
01.48 am: Greek air safety authorities deny EgyptAir wreckage found. The head of the Greek air safety authority said that wreckage found in the Mediterranean "does not come from a plane".
“Up to now the analysis of the debris indicates that it does not come from a plane, my Egyptian counterpart also confirmed to me that it was not yet proven that the debris came from the EgyptAir flight when we were last in contact around 1745 GMT,” Athanasios Binis told AFP, after the airline said Egyptian officials had confirmed the wreckage found near a Greek island was from the ill-fated flight.
01.21 am: Egyptian and Russian officials believe the flight may have been brought down by terrorists, reports Associated Press.
01.19 am: In a statement issued by his office, Sisi also ordered an investigative committee formed by the civil aviation ministry to immediately start investigating the causes of the plane's disappearance.
01.14 am: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered the civil aviation ministry, the army's search and rescue centre, the navy, and the air force to take all necessary measures to locate debris
01.00 am: Two Canadian citizens were on board the EgyptAir jet that disappeared from the radar en route from Paris to Cairo, the Canadian government said on Thursday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said that Canadian officials were working with authorities to confirm whether there were any other Canadian citizens on board.
21.40 pm: Greece will scale back search and rescue assets deployed to find the airliner, two Greek government sources said.
20.54 hours: Egypt will lead the official committee investigating the disappearance of the flight, the head of Egypt's Air Accidents Investigation department said.
The committee will also include France, which is both the manufacturing country of the Airbus 320 and the country with the second-largest number of victims on board after Egypt.
19.28 hours: Aircraft debris was found in the southern Mediterranean by Greek authorities searching for a missing EgyptAir aircraft which vanished from radar screens early Thursday, Greek state tv reported. Earlier, Greek officials said pieces of plastic were found in the sea some 230 miles south of the island of Crete, and two lifevests which appeared to be from an aircraft.
from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declaring the finding of wreckage of the missing aircraft No. MS 804
— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) >May 19, 2016
The Egyptian Investigation Team in co-operation with the Greek counterpart are still searching for other remains of the missing plane.
— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) >May 19, 2016
19.18 hours: Greek State TV says that auhorities found aircraft parts in sea during serach for missing EgyptAir aircraft
18:49 hours: US President Barack Obama briefed on missing EgyptAir flight by Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco, says White House
18:44 hours: Greek officials: Egyptian plane locates 2 orange items believed to be from missing EgyptAir flight.
18.33 hours: Britain's Foreign secretary Hammond has said that British passport holder was on board missing EgyptAir flight, says Britain has offered assistance to Egypt but there have been no requests for support.
18:23 hours: Missing Egyptian aircraft debris found south of Greek island of Karpathis in Southern Medeterranean reports Greek State TV.
18.06 hours: The plane was more likely to have been brought down by terror attacks rather than technical failure according to Egypt's civil aviation minister
18.03 hours: Federal security service chief calls on European partners to take joint measures to identify those behind the missing plane .
17.59 hours: There was no known security issues with the passengers on the missing plane but futher checks are underway, Egypt's civial aviation minisiter has said.
17.42 hours Egyptian aviation minister has said that search efforts are focused near greek island of Karpathos
17.38 hours: Egyptian aviation minister says no debris found from mising EgyptAir plane so far.
17.25 hours: Egyptian prosecutor general orders urgent state securtiy investigation into missing EgyptAir plane says a judicial source
17.18 hours: Egypt civil aviation minister says authorities trid to resume contact with the missing plane but were unable to establish contact
17.05 hours: Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail announced a search was under way for the missing Airbus A320 but it was too early to rule out any explanation, including an attack like the one blamed for bringing down a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai peninsula last year.
Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the Airbus had crashed into the Mediterranean between Greece and Egypt.
16:43 hours: An EgyptAir airliner which went missing on Thursday morning had made 'sudden swerves' mid-air and plunged before dropping off radars in the southern Mediterranean, Greece's defence minister said. “At 3.39am the course of the aircraft was south and south-east of Kassos and Karpathos (islands)..immediately after it entered Cairo FIR and made swerves and a descent I describe; 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right,” Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told a news conference.
14.11 hours: Egypt foreign ministry says it will work closely with France to investigate what caused the plane to "fall".
14.08 hours: Egyptian and French foreign ministries exchange condolences over fallen plane, says a Egyptian foreign ministry statement
13.24 hours Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Thursday that the search was underway to find the missing EgyptAir plane and it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism.
13.08 p.m. European aviation safety agency says on twitter aware of the media reports concerning EgyptAir flight MS 804. No further information at this stage, following developments very closely
12.56 hours: Egypt's Prime minister says search operations underway, too early to say what happened to missing plane
12.51 hours Egyptian military denies in a statement that it received any distress messages from missing EgyptAir plane. Egypt civil aviation ministry has said that it is too early to confirm if missing palne crashed
12.46 hours : French Foreign ministry confirms 15 French citizens among 56 passengers on missing EgyptAIr plane.
12.00 noon: Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed
11.46 a.m.: Egyptian civil aviation Ministry says Egyptian military unit received distress signal from plane at 04.26 GMT.
11.40 a.m: Greek air traffic controllers spoke to pilot of missing EgyptAir plane while over Greece, he did not report any problems. France is ruling nothing out as to why an EgyptAir plane went missing after leaving Paris for Cairo, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said on Thursday.
11.36 a.m: Greek civil aviation chief says EgyptAir flight disappeared from radar two minutes after leaving Greek airspace.
11.30 a.m: French Government to hold ministerial meeting on EgyptAir flight disappearance at 06.30 GMT says French President's office.
11.24 a.m: French President spoke to Egyptian counterpart about EgyptAir flight, to co-operate closely to establish circumstances according to Hollande's office
11.14 a.m. French President to contact Egypt President, nothing can be ruled out as a possible cause, says French PM.
11.11 a.m: Egyptian aviation ministry says 30 Egyptains, 15 French and 1 Briton among passengers of missing EgyptAir plane.
11.01 a.m: Airbus group says no further details on reports of missing Egyptair flight at this time, will provide further information when available
10.48 a.m: Greek defence ministry says it has deployed frigate, military aircraft to southern mediterraenean in an effort to locate missing EgyptAir plane.
10.32 a.m: Egypt state newspaper Ahram says EgyptAir pilot made no distress call and the last contact was made ten minutes before the plane vanished
10.29 a.m: Egyptian Aviation officials say they believe missing EgyptAir plane crashed into the sea.
10.03 a.m: French airport officials say of EgyptAir flight "It did not land, that's all we can say for the moment."
09.47 a.m: Egypt's Civil Avation ministry is gathering information on technical state of missing plane an aviation ministry source has confirmed.
09.46 a.m: EgyptAir Flight 804 was flying at 37,000 feet when it disappeared.
09.36 a.m: The Airbus A320 Flight 804 vanished at 2-45 a.m. local time, 10 miles (16 kilometers) after it entered Egyptian air space, it said. The Paris airport authority and the French civil aviation authority would not immediately comment.
09.21 a.m: EgyptAir confirms in tweet that plane was Airbus 320
09.20 a.m: EgyptAir says plane carrying 69 has disappeared from radar
09.08 a.m: Egypt Civil Aviation Ministry says they contact lost with plane ten miles inside Egyptian airspace
National carrier EgyptAir said on Thursday a flight from Paris to Cairo had disappeared from radar before entering Egyptian airspace.
“An official source at EgyptAir stated that Flight no MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar,” the airline said on its Twitter account.
The CNN said the plane was carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew. A later Tweet by EgyptAir said the plane, which was travelling at an altitude of 37,000 feet, disappeared about 80 miles before it was due to enter Egyptian airspace.
According to flightradar24.com, the plane was an Airbus A320 and its last known position was above the Mediterranean Sea.
The Egypt Civil Aviation Ministry said search and rescue teams are looking for the missing EgyptAir plane.
