EgyptAir Flight MS804 To Cairo Disappears From Radar

Cairo: EgyptAir has confirmed that flight 804, traveling from Paris to Cairo, has disappeared with 56 passengers and ten crew members on board.

The Associated Press news agency quoted anonymous Egyptian aviation officials as saying the plane has crashed in the Mediterranean Sea.

The officials said the “possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed,” and the search is now underway for the debris, according to the news agency.

According to EgyptAir, the plane took off from Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport shortly after 11pm local time.

“At 4:26 AM, rescue teams affiliated with the Egyptian armed forces have received an SOS message from the emergency unit of the missing plane” the airline said in a tweet.

However, Egyptian army later denied detecting a distress signal from the missing plane, according to AFP. Three of those on board were children, including one infant, and three of the crew members were security personnel, EgyptAir reported. 

The Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000 feet when it disappeared 16km after entering Egyptian airspace, the airline said. Egypt and Greece have launched maritime searches for missing flight, the Egyptian Army said. 

EgyptAir has also published a list of passengers on board by nationality: 30 Egyptian nationals, 15 French, two Iraqis, one British, one Belgian, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Canadian, one Saudi and one Kuwaiti were on board, the airline said.

The French government held an emergency meeting at 06:30 GMT to discuss the plane’s disappearance, the French President Francois Hollande’s office said.