EgyptAir Flight 804 Disappears on Way to Cairo From Paris

EgyptAir Flight 804 Disappears on Way to Cairo From Paris

EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea on its way to Cairo from Paris with 66 people onboard.

Not much is known at this time, but Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi has mentioned terrorism without any proof:

“We do not deny there is a possibility of terrorism or deny the possibility of technical fault,” Fathi said at a Cairo news conference. “I will continue to use the term missing plane until we find any debris.”

Later at the same news conference, he indicated that while there were “no known security issues” with passengers aboard the plane, the probability of terrorism downing it is higher than the likelihood of a mechanical cause.

“I don’t want to go to speculation. I don’t want to go to assumptions like others. But if you analyze this situation properly, the possibility of having a different action aboard, of having a terror attack, is higher than having a technical problem,” Fathi said.

EgyptAir urged everyone to stop jumping to conclusions.

Press Release No 7

EGYPTAIR denies all misleading information published by news websites and social media channels regarding the reasons

— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 19, 2016

of the disappearance of EGYPTAIR flight MS804 and the company confirms that the reason of disappearance hasn't been yet confirmed.

— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 19, 2016

EGYPTAIR Calls for media resources to be assured of the information they post or release

— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 19, 2016

and to abide by the official press releases issued by EGYPTAIR media center.

— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 19, 2016

Officials lost track of the plane at 37,000 feet about ten minutes after it entered Egyptian airspace. Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos told reporters the plane “first swerved 90 degrees to the left, then spun through 360 degrees to the right.” Greek aviation officials lost track of the plane after it hit 15,000 feet.

The plane did not encounter any bad weather over the sea and no one sent out a distress call. The Greek air traffic controllers tried to reach out to the pilots, but they did not answer:

“During the transfer procedure to Cairo airspace, about seven miles before the aircraft entered the Cairo airspace, Greek controllers tried to contact the pilot but he was not responding,” he [Kostas Litzerakis, head of Greece’s civil aviation department] said.

Greek authorities are searching in the area south of the island of Karpathos, Defence Minister Kammenos told a news conference.

“At 3.39am (0039 GMT) the course of the aircraft was south and south-east of Kassos and Karpathos (islands),” he said. “Immediately after, it entered Cairo FIR (flight information region) and made swerves and a descent I describe: 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right.”

Greek officials sent out “aircraft and frigate to the area” immediately. They told Reuters people found “two floating objects, colored white and red” in the sea about 230 miles south of Crete.

Flight MS 804 already stopped in Cairo, Asmara, and Carthage earlier in the day. The Airbus A329 holds 145 passengers, but only carried 56 passengers on this flight with 10 crew members.

the passengers' nationalities are as follows:
– 15 French
– 30 Egyptian
– 1 British
– 1 Belgium
– 2 Iraqis
– 1 Kuwaiti
– 1 Saudi

— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 19, 2016

– 1 Sudanese
– 1 Chadian
– 1 Portuguese
– 1 Algerian
– 1 Canadian

— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 19, 2016

*UPDATE* Officials have discovered the wreckage of the airplane near the Greek island Karpathos.

Wreckage of crashed #EgyptAir plane found at sea https://t.co/LtHyPzrcW5 pic.twitter.com/zpOUYlegh4

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 19, 2016

Now the Associated Press reports Greek officials claim the items found does not belong to 804.

BREAKING: Senior Greek air safety official says debris found so far in Mediterranean does not belong to an aircraft.

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 19, 2016

Democrat Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also said the crash shows the dangers the U.S. faces from terrorist groups.

.@HillaryClinton says #EgyptAir crash "shines a very bright light" on threats US faces from organized terror groupshttps://t.co/LNI8a5HX4M

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) May 19, 2016

[Featured image via YouTube]

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