An EgyptAir flight with 69 people on board heading from Paris to Cairo disappeared from the radar on Thursday, the airline said. The “possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed”, as the plane hasn’t landed in any of the nearby airports, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
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If it entered Egypt airspace and did not report in, that’s highly significant, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said.
“Since they were 10 miles into Egypt airspace, they should have reported in”.
Greek civil aviation authorities said the jet disappeared off its radar two minutes after leaving its airspace.
The Egyptian army denied it detected any “distress messages” from the EgyptAir flight, in a statement posted on its spokesman’s Facebook page.
An Egypt Air plane has gone missing over the Mediterranean Sea.
The airline tweeted: “EGYPTAIR has contacted the concerned authorities and bodies and inspection is underway through the rescue teams”.
Greece also joined the search and rescue operation with two aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said.
The flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Cairo normally takes just over four hours and the plane was due to arrive at 3:05 am local time.
French President Francois Hollande called his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the leaders agreed to “cooperate closely” to establish what happened to the plane.
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The 56 passengers include one Canadian, 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, one Briton, two Iraqis, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese and one Algerian. The hijacker surrendered at Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus and all passengers were released safely.
