An Egyptair flight from Paris to Cairo, Egypt, disappeared on Wednesday night. The plane departed from the main airport of the French capital, Charles De Gaulle, at 23:09 local time in Paris, and after 2:30 hours of flight, it disappeared from the radar. Its arrival in Egypt was scheduled for 3:05 am local time, the flight had 56 engers and 10 crew on board.
The airline officially published on its twitter: “A source at Egyptair claimed that flight MS804, which departed Paris 23:09 (CEST), bound for Cairo disappeared from the radar.” According to official information from Egyptair, the flight disappeared about 45 minutes before the scheduled time to land in Cairo, or 16 kilometers after entering Egyptian airspace.
Radar control bodies said the aircraft was at an altitude of 37 feet when it disappeared. The flight was being operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft. The commander had more than 6275 flight hours, 2101 of which in an Airbus A320, the co-pilot had 2766 flight hours. The aircraft was manufactured in 2003 and was in good condition.
President Hollande, during a press conference on the incident, confirmed that the plane had crashed into the sea. In the afternoon, white and red plastic objects were found 370km south of Crete, the Hellenic Ministry of Defense said. The objects were found in the same area where the aircraft had last been detected by radar.
Rescuers and Egyptian and Greek soldiers are inspecting the stretch where the plane is believed to have crashed. A Defense Ministry source said Greek authorities were also investigating the testimony of the captain of a merchant ship who claimed to have seen "fire in the sky" about 240 kilometers south of the Greek island Karpathos.
According to the Greek Defense Ministry, the plane made "sudden turns" before crashing into the Mediterranean Sea. A 90-degree left turn was recorded before the crash, and then it dropped from 37.000 feet to 15.000 feet before veering 360 degrees to the right.
The list of engers for the flight has been confirmed, see below:
- 30 Egyptians
- 15 French
- 2 Iraqis
- 1 British
- 1 Belgian
- 1 Sudanese
- 1 Chadian
- 1 Portuguese
- 1 Algerian
