Flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 p.m. Paris time (5:09 p.m. ET) and vanished over the Mediterranean Sea.
French President Francois Hollande told a press conference that the plane had crashed, but said it was too soon to speculate as to the
cause
.
Binary Option Trade Signal Win $1000 Of Dollars a day
Egyptian and Greek authorities are searching for the plane, which was flying at an altitude of nearly 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar shortly before it was due to land.
Officials said the plane had just entered Egyptian airspace and disappeared about 175 miles away from the country's coast.
There were 56 passengers — including three children — along with seven crew and three "security" personnel on board the Airbus A320, Egyptair said. The airline initially had said a total of 69 people were on board but later revised the figure.
Related: Missing Egyptair Jet Raises Fears of 'Worst-Case Scenario'
Airbus — the maker of the plane — said in a statement that it regretted to confirm that "an A320 operated by Egyptair was lost" over the Mediterranean Sea.
French and Egyptian officials stressed they were closely cooperating to determine what caused the crash. Radar showed no adverse weather in the area at the time of the jet's disappearance.
Egyptian and Greek authorities were focusing search efforts in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Greek military confirmed that one of its frigates and two of its aircraft were assisting in the operation about 130 nautical miles south-southeast of the island of Karpathos.
Two helicopters also were on standby on Karpathos, Greek Cmdr. Vasilios Beletsiotis told NBC News.
Egyptair said the flight was carrying 30 Egyptian nationals along with citizens from 11 other countries — including Canada, France, the U.K., Belgium and Iraq.
Britain's Foreign Office told NBC News it was "in urgent contact with local authorities in Paris and Cairo" and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs opened a crisis hotline.
No comments:
Post a Comment