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Egyptair flight from Paris to Cairo missing from radar

Debris has been found off the Greek island of Crete in the search for the missing EgyptAir flight which disappeared with 66 people on board.

Composite shows the missing plane, its flight path, and distressed families in Cairo.
Composite shows the missing plane, its flight path, and distressed families in Cairo.
13 min read
1:46PMMay 19, 2016.
Updated 12:33AMMay 20, 2016

LIVE: An EgyptAir plane en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has disappeared over the Mediterranean, 16km within Egypt airspace.

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SUMMARY:Read a wrap of today’s events here

ANALYSIS: Read pilot Byron Bailey’s analysis here

12.24am:‘All likelihood a terror attack’

The head of Russia’s top domestic security agency says the crashed Egyptian jet has apparently been brought down by a terror attack. Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday that “in all likelihood it was a terror attack” causing the crash of the EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board, according to Russian news agencies.

Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service, called for a joint action to track down those responsible for that “monstrous attack.” Last October, a Russian plane flying from Egypt crashed into the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device.

11.32pm:Possible wreckage found

Signs of possible wreckage were found Thursday off the Greek island of Crete in a search for an EgyptAir flight missing in the Mediterranean, a Greek military spokesman told AFP.

“There have been finds southeast of Crete, inside the Cairo flight information area,” general staff spokesman Vassilis Beletsiotis said, adding that an Egyptian C-130 plane had spotted the floating objects, and ships would be sent to investigate.

Greek state television ERT had earlier reported that debris had been spotted some 230 nautical miles (425 km) from Crete, about 100 nautical miles from the plane’s last known location.

11.05pm:Debris found: reports

Reuters are reporting that Greek authorities searching for the aircraft have spotted two floating objects in the sea 50 miles south of the island of Karpathos. There is no indication as yet that they are from the missing plane.

11.00pm:What we know so far

• EgyptAir flight MS804 was travelling from Paris to Cairo, a three-and-a-half-hour journey

• It disappeared from the radar at 2.45am on Thursday Egypt time (1045 AEST)

• It was 16km into Egyptian airspace but still over the Mediterranean

• Aviation officials say it has crashed

• French president confirms it’s lost

• Distress signal from emergency mechanisms of the missing flight reportedly received at 4.26am (1226 AEST), almost two hours after it disappeared from radar - report denied by Egyptian government

• Greek authorities say captain of a merchant ship reported “flame in the sky” about 130 nautical miles south of island of Karpathos

• Search concentrated near Karpathos

• 10 crew and 56 passengers on board - 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one each from Algeria, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Chad, Kuwait, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan - 1 child and two babies among them - no Australians on board

• No distress call from pilot received

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

• Last contact with plane was 10 minutes before it vanished

• A320 one of the most widely used Airbus planes, a single-aisle plane that usually seats about 150 people and used for short- and medium-range flights

• Greece has joined search and rescue operation with two aircraft and a frigate is on the way.

10.49pm:Fireball footage ‘old’

Unverified footage of a “ball of fire in the sky” around the time the flight disappeared shared earlier by Channel 7 is said not to be of the missing plane, but an old video.

9.59pm:‘No cause ruled out’

Egypt’s aviation minister says he can not rule out that an attack or a technical failure brought down the plane, and no wreckage has been found.

“I don’t deny the hypothesis of a terrorist attack or something technical. It is too early,” Sherif Fathy told a news conference.

“I have no information that wreckage has been found for now,” he said, adding that he could not even confirm whether the plane had crashed.

9.33pm: How safe is the Airbus A320?

The Airbus A320, the model of the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean on Thursday, is one of the most common planes in service around the world today.

Some key facts about it:

-Similar to the Boeing 737, the single-aisle, twin-engine jet is used to connect cities that are between one and five hours apart.

-The A320 is generally considered one of the safest passenger planes in service. Airbus says it has had 11 crashes with fatalities, on top of the Germanwings plane deliberately brought down by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz in March 2015. Overall, the A320 registered just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to a Boeing safety analysis published last year.

-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.

Employees at the EgyptAir counter which reopened at Charles de Gaulle Airport today.
Employees at the EgyptAir counter which reopened at Charles de Gaulle Airport today.

9.02pm:‘Plane fell 22,000 feet’

The missing plane fell 22,000 feet and spun sharply before it disappeared, the Greek defence minister has said.

The flight made abrupt turns and suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar, he claims.

Panos Kammenos says the EgyptAir flight made abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar shortly after entering Cairo’s air traffic control area of responsibility.

Kammenos said the aircraft was 10-15 miles inside the Egyptian area and at an altitude of 37,000 feet. He says: “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.

Greek civil aviation authorities say all appeared fine with the flight until the time when air traffic controllers were to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts. The pilot did not respond to their calls, and the aircraft then vanished from radars. Kammenos’ comments are the first indication of what might have happened after the aircraft entered Cairo’s air traffic control space.

A relative of a passenger at Cairo airport.
A relative of a passenger at Cairo airport.

8.52pm:Pilot’s last contact

The pilot had “not mentioned a problem” in his final contact, the Greek civil aviation has said.

“The flight controllers contacted the pilot (with the plane) at a height of 37,000 feet (near Athens)... he did not mention a problem,” civil aviation chief Constantinos Litzerakos told Antenna TV.

Litzerakos said the controllers had last spoken to the pilot “around 0005 GMT”, some 25 minutes before the plane disappeared from Greek radar.

A civil aviation statement said the pilot “was in a good mood and gave thanks in Greek when authorised to exit the Athens flight information region.

“We tracked the entire process from the plane’s entry (into Greek airspace) to its exit, it does not appear to deviate at all from the coordinates we gave,” Litzerakos said.

8.50pm:Migrant jet joins search

The French military says a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants has been diverted to help search for an EgyptAir flight that crashed in the area.

Military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron told The Associated Press that the jet is joining the Egypt-led search effort, and the French navy may send another plane and a ship to the zone.

8.29pm:Hollande confirms crash

Francois Hollande.
Francois Hollande.

French President Francois Hollande has confirmed that the EgyptAir flight had “crashed”.

“We must ensure that we know everything on the causes of what happened. No hypothesis is ruled out or favoured,” he said in a televised address.

“Whether it was an accident or another hypothesis that everyone has on their mind -- a terrorist hypothesis... at this stage we must focus on our solidarity with the families and the search for the causes of the catastrophe,” Hollande added.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said its accident department had opened an investigation into the crash.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has shared his thoughts on the missing plane:

7.22pm:Experts say terror most likely

Several scenarios could explain the mysterious disappearance of the Egyptair flight between Paris to Cairo early Thursday, but experts are saying a terrorist attack is the most likely.

Both France and Egypt have been leading targets for Islamist extremists in recent months.

In October, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for bombing an A321 plane belonging to Russian charter company Metrojet that crashed into the Sinai desert on its way from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg, killing 224 passengers and crew.

Experts say the chances of a mechanical malfunction in the case of Thursday’s Egyptair disappearance are slim.

“A major technical fault -- the explosion of a motor, for instance -- seems improbable,” said aeronautics expert Gerard Feldzer, underlining that the A320 in question was “relatively new”, having entered service in 2003.

Experts also say it is unlikely that the plane was shot down from the ground, as was the case with the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that went down over Ukraine in July 2014, or from the sea as occurred in July 1988 when the US Navy blew up an Iran Air passenger flight by mistake.

That leaves a terrorist attack as the most likely possibility, not least because it appears that no distress signal was sent from the aircraft, despite earlier conflicting reports.

Exploring the possibility that a terror attack brought down the aircraft, Egyptian security officials said they were running background checks on the passengers to see if any of them had links to extremists.

Read more detailed comments from Gerard Feldzer and other aviation experts on why the plane might have disappeared here.

The missing EgyptAir Airbus A 320-200 pictured in May.
The missing EgyptAir Airbus A 320-200 pictured in May.

6.47pm: Who were three security officers?

Earlier, EgyptAit confirmed seven crew members and three security personnel were on board the missing plane. Just to clarify, the security presence was normal procedure, France’s transport chief has said. Alain Vidalies told reporters after an emergency government meeting that the plane had three Egyptian security officers, “which is the usual practice.” He said the plane was not carrying freight.

6.29pm:‘Too early to rule out terrorism’

Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail says the search is under way to find the missing plane and it’s too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism.

“Search operations are ongoing at this time for the airplane in the area where it is believed to have lost contact,” he told reporters at Cairo airport on Thursday.

Asked by a journalist if he could rule out that terrorists were behind the incident, Ismail said: “We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything. All the search operations must be concluded so we can know the cause.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair a national security council meeting on Thursday morning, a statement from his office said.

Egyptian PM Sherif Ismail talks to reporters at Cairo International Airport.
Egyptian PM Sherif Ismail talks to reporters at Cairo International Airport.

6.10pm: Is this footage missing plane?

Channel 7 have shared unverified footage of a “ball of fire in the sky” around the time the flight disappeared. Earlier a merchant ship reported a “flame in the sky” about 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos.

5.57pm:Plane ‘crashed off Greek island’

The EgyptAir flight crashed into the sea off the southern Greek island of Karpathos while in Egyptian airspace, a Greece aviation source told AFP.

“At around 0029 GMT when it was in Egyptian airspace, the plane disappeared from Greek radars... it crashed around 130 nautical miles off the island of Karpathos,” the source said.

Red marker shows location of Karpathos. Picture: Google Maps
Red marker shows location of Karpathos. Picture: Google Maps

5.25pm:Families arrive at airport

Relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir flight have started arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, where their loved ones boarded the aircraft.

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 the airport’s Terminal 1. The woman was sobbing, holding her face in a handkerchief.

A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris.
A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris.

The two were led away by police and airport staff and did not speak to journalists.

The French government is setting up a crisis centre for relatives at the airport.

Meanwhile, distressed relatives have left a briefing at Cairo International Airport.

Relatives leave Cairo airport after a briefing about the flight.
Relatives leave Cairo airport after a briefing about the flight.
Families outside a services hall at Cairo airport.
Families outside a services hall at Cairo airport.

5.07.pm:‘Plane has crashed’

The EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo has crashed, Egyptian aviation officials say.

Aviation officials say the search is now under way for the debris.

They say the “possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed” as the plane hasn’t landed in any of the nearby airports.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.

People gather outside the arrivals section of Cairo International Airport, Egypt.
People gather outside the arrivals section of Cairo International Airport, Egypt.

5.00pm:Signal ‘may be from another ship’

The distress signal may not have come from the plane but could be from another vessel in the Mediterranean, Ahmed Adel, Vice Chairman of EgyptAir’s Holding Company has told CNN. It’s also possible that it could have come from an activated crash device such as from a liferaft, CNN reports.

The EgyptAir building where relatives are waiting at Cairo International Airport. Picture: AP.
The EgyptAir building where relatives are waiting at Cairo International Airport. Picture: AP.

4.50pm:Distress call came from plane mechanism

Just to clarify that distress call, the airline has said Egyptian military search teams received a distress call from the plane’s emergency mechanisms at 4.26am (1226 AEST), almost two hours after it disappeared from radar..

4.31pm:Plane ‘did make distress call’

A distress call from MS804 was sent at 4:26am local time, nearly two hours after the plane disappeared from radar, according to a statement from the airline.

4.30pm:Last contact

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 was 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.

Egypt Air flight MS804 disappears from radar

4.16pm:Ship captain saw “flame in the sky”

An Egyptian defence ministry source said authorities were investigating an account from the captain of a merchant ship who reported a “flame in the sky” about 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos.

4.15pm:French, Egyptian presidents speak

The French government says President Francois Hollande spoke with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi by telephone, and they agreed to “closely co-operate to establish the circumstances” in which the EgyptAir flight disappeared.

The government statement cited Hollande as saying he shares the anxiety of families, in a written statement.

Reporters gather in front of the EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris.
Reporters gather in front of the EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris.

4.01pm:What we know so far

• EgyptAir flight MS804 disappeared off the radar at around 2.45am local time, when it was cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet.

• It is thought to have crashed into the Mediterranean about 280km from the Egypt coast.

• There were 66 people on board: 56 passengers including a child and two babies, and 10 crew members.

• There was no Mayday call before the plane disappeared.

• The pilots were highly experienced, with nearly 10,000 flying hours between them.

• The majority of passengers were Egyptian and French.

3.56pm:Passengers’ nationalities confirmed

EgyptAir has released its manifesto of passengers’ nationalities, which are as follows: 15 French, 30 Egyptian, 1 British, 1 Belgian 2 Iraqis, 1 Kuwaiti, 1 Saudi, 1 Sudanese, 1 Chadian, 1 Portuguese, 1 Algerian and 1 Canadian.

3.37pm: Infants on board

A child and two babies are among the 66 people on board the Egyptair flight from Paris which has disappeared above the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian armed forces are searching for the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew. Earlier, the airline said 69 people were on board.

3.35pm: Seeking info on Aussies

Embassy officials in France and Egypt are working to discover whether any Australians are on board the missing EgyptAir MS804 flight from Paris to Cairo. Read more here.

3.25pm:EgyptAir helplines

EgyptAir is offering the following toll-free numbers for concerned relatives of passengers on board Flight MS804: 080077770000 from any landline in Egypt, and +20225989320 from any mobile phone or from outside Egypt.

2.55pm:Search and rescue underway

Egyptian military are at the site where it is believed the plane went missing, 64km north of the Egyptian coastline, EgyptAir has tweeted. The Greek defence minister says a frigate and military aircraft have also been deployed to the site.

There was no special cargo on the flight and no notification of any dangerous goods aboard, said Ahmed Adel, vice chairman of EgyptAir.

2.40pm: Egyptair pilots “highly experienced”

The plane’s pilots were highly experienced, with 10,000 flying hours between them, according to the airline. The pilot, who has not been named, had over 6,000 flying hours including over 2,000 on the same model of plane and his first officer had nearly 3,000 according to Ahmed Adel, vice chairman of Egyptair.

CNN is reporting that it is highly significant that the pilots didn’t report in after entering Egyptian airspace. “Since they were 10 miles into Egypt airspace, they should have reported in. If anything had been going on they would have reported at that time,” aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said.

The airline has revised the number of people on board to 66: 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, seven crew members and three security personnel.

2.30pm:No Mayday call

The plane’s pilots didn’t radio for help before their aircraft disappeared off the radar, according to Ehab Mohy el-Deen, the head of Egypt’s air navigation authority. Mr el-Deen told The New York Times that Greek air traffic controllers had notified their Egyptian counterparts the plane was missing. “They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished,” he said.

1.15pm: Egyptair plane disappears from radar

Egyptair says one of its planes has disappeared from radar.

The flight from Paris to Cairo was carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew.

“An informed source at EGYPTAIR stated that Flight no MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar,’’ a statement on the airline’s Facebook page reads.

“EGYPTAIR media centre will update as more information becomes available.’’

EgyptAir flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris at 11.09pm local time on a journey that was expected to last about 3 hours 45 minutes.

WATCH: Live tracker of MS804

However the A320 disappeared 10 miles (16km) within Egyptian airspace at a height of 37,000 feet, about 30 minutes before it was due to touch down in Cairo at 3.15pm, the airline confirmed.

The airline also tweeted: “EGYPTAIR has contacted the concerned authorities and bodies and inspection is underway through the rescue teams.”

The Flightradar24 website said MS804 is an Airbus A320-232, and was delivered to the airline in 2003.

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/world/egyptair-flight-from-paros-to-cairo-missing-from-radar/news-story/76999b8baf7337d91315193e58ac2f8e