EgyptAir flight MS804 ‘swerved and then plunged’ before disappearing

THE missing EgyptAir flight did not radio for help before it plunged suddenly and swerved wildly. It simply vanished.

An EgyptAir Airbus A320 takes off from Vienna International Airport. Picture: AP/Thomas Ranner

MYSTERY surrounds the fate of the missing EgyptAir flight MS804 with the final recorded moments of the plane showing it “swerved and then plunged” before turning 360 degrees.

The Greek defence minister gave a dramatic insight into the plane’s movements before authorities lost contact with it in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Panos Kammenos said the aircraft carrying 66 people was cruising inside Egyptian airspace before plunging dramatically and making a series of sudden movements.

“It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360 degree turn toward the right, dropping from 38,000 to 15,000 feet and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet,” he said.

Whatever happened occurred so quickly the pilots did not have a chance to send out a distress signal.

“They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished,” the head of Egypt’s air navigation authority Ehab Mohy el-Deen told the New York Times.

There were no reports of stormy weather at the time with authorities exploring the possibility that it was a terror attack.

The plane’s erratic course suggested a number of possible explanations, including a catastrophic mechanical or structural failure, a bombing, or a struggle over the controls with a hijacker in the cockpit.

Yesterday there were unconfirmed reports that a merchant ship saw an “explosion that lit up the sky” near the Greek island of Karpathos where the plane was believed to have disappeared, according to the Wall Street Journal.

EgyptAir pointed out that the pilot was very experienced with 6275 hours flying experience, including 2101 hours flying the same model aircraft, which was an Airbus A320 manufactured in 2003. The co-pilot had 2766 hours flying time.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said 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”.

Alexander Bortnikov, chief of Russia’s top domestic security agency, went further, saying: “In all likelihood it was a terror attack.”

Islamic State released a chilling video just days which directly threatened France but there has been no immediate claim from militants that they downed the plane.

If it was terrorism, it would be the second deadly attack involving Egypt’s aviation industry in seven months.

Last October, a Russian passenger plane that took off from an Egyptian Red Sea resort crashed in the Sinai, killing all 224 people aboard. Russia said it was brought down by a bomb, and a local branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Egyptian and Greek authorities in ships and planes searched the suspected crash area throughout the day for traces of the airliner or its victims, with more help on the way from the US, Britain and France.

But as night fell, they had yet to find any confirmed debris, at one point dismissing a reported sighting of life vests and other floating material.

French President Francois Hollande confirmed the plane travelling from Paris to Cairo crashed and said terror could not be ruled out.

“The information we have gathered — ministers, members of government and, of course, the Egyptian authorities — confirm, sadly, that it has crashed. It is lost,” the French leader said following an emergency meeting on Thursday.

“No hypothesis is ruled out.”

Authorities have been searching for the wreckage of the plane in the Mediterranean Sea, with efforts focused near Karpathos Island.

Earlier officials confirmed plane debris had been found near the island but this statement was later retracted by EgyptAir vice chairman, who told CNN, the debris was not from MS804.

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR

• EgyptAir flight MS804 vanished on four-hour trip from Paris to Cairo

• It was due to land at 3.15am Cairo time

• The plane disappeared from radar 2.30am on Thursday Egypt time, 16km into Egyptian airspace over Mediterranean Sea

• 66 passengers on board including seven crew and three security staff

• Distress signal reportedly received at 4.26am, almost two hours after plane disappeared from radar

• Ship captain reported “flame in the sky” about 130 nautical miles south of island of Karpathos

• Greek authorities say flight made erratic moves just before it disappeared