Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail told reporters “we can’t preclude or confirm anything yet”, when asked if the flight could have been attacked. “She was on the rise and the ability of 37.000 ft and disappeared before entering Egyptian airspace by 80 miles (10 minutes)”.
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Lyzerakos told private Antenna television that controllers tried to make contact with the pilot 10 miles before the flight exited the Greek Flight Information Range (FIR), but the pilot did not respond.
In March past year, 150 passengers and crew died when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 into the French Alps.
EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the sea off the southern Greek island of Karpathos while in Egyptian airspace, a Greece aviation source told AFP.
The airline said the flight sent a distress message before vanishing from radar screens that was detected by the military.
The EgyptAir plane was flying at 11,000m and disappeared about 130 nautical miles off the Greek island of Karpathos.
The Airbus A320 is a widely used twin-engine, single-aisle plane that operates on short and medium-haul routes. We are remaining very cautious about what we say as so little is known right now.
Greece’s defence minister says Flight MS804 made “sharp turns” and plunged before dropping off the radar.
France’s aviation authority could not immediately be reached for comment.
And until the debris from the plane is located, Fathy says, Egypt will not say that the plane has crashed. Early reports on distress signals have conflicted but it appears that the pilot did not warn air-traffic controllers of any problems before the plane disappeared.
To date, the fleet has completed some 180 million flight hours in more than 98 million flights. Earlier, the airline said 69 people were on board.
Passengers on board include 30 Egyptian nationals, 15 French citizens, 2 Iraqis, 1 British passenger, as well as 1 national from each of the following countries: Canada, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, Chad and Portugal.
No other details about the missing plane have been released.
CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said the plane vanished while cruising – the safest part of the journey.
Airbus said it was ready to help authorities investigating the disappearance and said “our concerns go out to all those affected”.
Cairo International Airport’s website listed the flight’s scheduled arrival time as 3.05am. They were ferried to special centers at both airports, where translators and psychiatric support awaited. Airport staff said EgyptAir staff were on their way.
Security at the airport was already heightened, but had been tightened even further in recent months following November’s Islamic State (IS) group-claimed attacks in Paris.
“The President talked to Egyptian President Sisi about the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight between Paris and Cairo”. In March 2016, EgyptAir flight MS181 from Alexandria to Cairo was boarded by hijacker Seif Eldin Mustafa, forcing the aircraft to land in Cyprus.
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A similar Airbus plane operated by Metrojet was brought down in Egyptian airspace in October, killing all 224 people on board. Russian Federation and Western governments have said the plane was most likely brought down by a bomb, and the Islamic State militant group said it had smuggled an explosive on board. US investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downward.
