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Update 9 | EgyptAir plane crashes in Mediterranean Sea, wreckage found

Greek TV reporting that large objects found in search for EgyptAir passenger which disappeared from radar, 40 minutes from its destination 16km into Egyptian airspace, carrying 66 people. Ministry official says no Maltese citizens were aboard.

Last updated on 19 May 2016, 7:18pm
8 min read
EgyptAir Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo went missing with 66 people on board
EgyptAir Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo went missing with 66 people on board

Wreckage of EgyptAir flight MS804 has been found near Greek island of Karpathos, Egyptian aviation officials have confirmed.

No Maltese citizens were on board the missing Egyptair aircraft, a spokesperson for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has confirmed.

EgyptAir Flight MS804 disappeared from radar screens at around 2:45pm local time - around 45 minutes before it was due to arrive at Cairo International Airport.

A Greek vessel searching for the missing Egyptair aircraft discovered two large plastic floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of Crete, Greek defence sources said.

The two objects appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red. They were spotted close to an area where a transponder signal was emitted earlier, the sources said.

Egyptian aviation minister Sherif Fathy said that terrorism was a more likely cause of the crash than technical failure.

Despite his reluctance to be drawn on the causes, Fathy said: “If you analyse the situation properly the possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical [problem].

French President Francois Hollande said that all the information gathered so far indicates that flight MS804 flying from Paris to Cairo crashed - but, he added, no hypothesis as to the cause has been ruled out.

As the search for the plane continues, early it has been revealed that an emergency signal - possibly from an emergency beacon - was sent two hours after the plane disappeared from radar screens.

The Airbus A320 is believed to have come down in the sea between Crete and Egypt.

"The information we have gathered - ministers, members of government and, of course, the Egyptian authorities - confirm, sadly, that it has crashed. It is lost," Hollande said.

As talk of a terrorist act gains ground, the French President said "we have also the duty to know everything about the causes of what has happened, no hypothesis should be ruled out or preferred.

"I want that everything should be put at the disposition of the Greek and Egyptian authorities so that we can liaise with them.

Pledging logistic aide, he said France would be providing ships and planes to help Egyptian authorities locate where the plane crashed and to collect the debris "that will allow us to know and find the truth."

Meanwhile, French newspaper Le Figaro quoted a French border police source as saying that investigators will be focusing their attention on ground crew at Charles de Gaulles airport, to establish whether any airport employees posed a security risk.

The source said that, in the past, a number of Salafists – Muslim fundamentalists - had been detected among those with access to the areas used for the loading and unloading of airplanes.

The Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos said the plane made sharp turns and a descent before disappearing off radars.

Greece's Civil Aviation Authority said the air traffic controllers' last communication with the EgyptAir pilot found him "in good spirits".

But the authority said that when controllers tried to contact the pilot again at 03:27 local time for the handover to Egyptian airspace, "the aircraft did not respond".

Earlier, Fathy urged media outlets and people not to "jump to conclusions" on what's behind the disappearance of EgyptAir flight MS804.

"I hope we do not jump to conclusions and assuming reasons and to stick to the press releases of EgyptAir," he said. 

But a statement issued by Egypt's foreign ministry refers to the incident as the "falling" of the plane: the first real indication from Egypt that flight MS804 might have come down.

It says that the Egyptian and French foreign ministers exchanged condolences, and agreed to co-operate on investigating what happened.

So far, there has been no comment by Egypt's president.

Speaking Egyption Channel One TV, the Civil Aviation Minister said: "Until now this is a disappearance incident. Some plane accidents took years to know the reason behind the incident."

There is still no official confirmation that the plane has crashed, but despite this, EgyptAir officials and the Egyptian civil aviation department have told Reuters they believed the jet came down in the sea.

“The theory that the plane crashed and fell is now confirmed after the preliminary search and after it did not arrive at any of the nearby airports,” said a senior aviation source, who declined to be identified.

The source added: “All causes for the disaster are open, whether it is a major technical fault or a terrorist action or any other circumstance. This will be ascertained when we inspect the plane’s wreckage and transcribe its black boxes.”

Meanwhile, a Greek defence ministry source said authorities were also investigating an account from the captain of a merchant ship who reported a ‘flame in the sky’ about 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos.

The boat tracking site MarineTraffic reports that eight boats have joined the search for the missing plane.

A Greek aviation source has told the AFP news agency that the missing EgyptAir plane crashed into the sea off the southern Greek island of Karpathos at about 01:30 CET. AFP are the only news outlet to report this so far.

The nationalities onboard include 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis and one national from the following countries: Britian, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, Chad and Portugal.

Strangely, a statement posted on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian army says the army did not receive a distress signal from the plane.

It is not clear whether this contradicts the EgyptAir report that a signal was received from the plane’s emergency devices – presumed to be a locator transmitter or beacon – at 04.26 local time (02.26 GMT), two hours after the last radar contact. It could refer to the previous statement by EgyptAir that no distress call was received from the cockpit.

In the army statement, the spokesman of the Egyptian army, Brigadier General Mohammed Samir, said the army had not received any distress call from the missing plane.

Regardless, a statement from Egypt’s civil aviation ministry says it is too early to conclude that the missing plane has crashed, seven hours after flight MS804 disappeared from the radar.

Outside the terminal, doctors and nurses, as well as military personnel, have been seen going into the hall where relatives of the passengers of the missing plane are being kept.

The Egyptian aviation ministry has announced a press conference to take place at 12.30pm.

An EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo has disappeared from radar, the Egyptian airline says. The plane did not put out a distress call, according to Egypt's state-run newspaper.

The flight departed from Paris on Wednesday evening and lost contact with ground crews at 2:45am local time, about 16km inside Egyptian airspace.

The 12-year-old Airbus A320-232 was about 40 minutes from its destination. It was the aircraft’s fifth flight of the day, including journeys to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and Carthage in Tunisia.

The EgyptAir aircraft left Paris at 23:09 local time on Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive in the Egyptian capital soon after 03:00 local time on Thursday.

The airline’s vice-chairman, Ahmed Abdel, told CNN the plane made no distress call. “Search and rescue has been dispatched and are now at the scene,” he said. “Daylight has just broken around an hour ago, so we should get some information within the next hour.”

Abdel said – contrary to EgyptAir’s official Twitter account – the aircraft was carrying 66 people including 56 passengers, three security personnel, and seven crew.

The Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000ft (11,300m) when it went missing over the eastern Mediterranean.

EgyptAir says search and rescue teams have been deployed. The search operation is being co-ordinated with the Greek authorities.

In a later update, EgyptAir said that three children were among those on board the plane.

Airbus A320s were regularly used for short-haul budget flights and have “an amazing safety record”.

In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus. The attacker later surrendered and all hostages were released.

Last October, a Russian passenger plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh crashed over the Sinai peninsula killing all 224 people on board. Officials in Moscow later said the aircraft was brought down by an explosive device. Islamic State militants said they had bombed the plane.

The timeline of events;

23:09 Cairo time: flight MS804 leaves Paris Charles de Gaulle airport

02:27 Cairo time: last signal picked up by Greek air traffic control

02:30 Cairo time: Egypt loses contact with flight

03:15 Cairo time: plane had been due to arrive in CairoThere are contradictory reports as to whether the plane sent a distress signal. EgyptAir initially said this was the case, and that a signal was received by Egypt's military at 04:26 Cairo time (03:26 BST), almost two hours after the flight disappeared.

However, Egypt's military later said no signal was received.

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