Flight disappears with 69 on board

EgyptAir flight MS804 is still missing with 66 persons onboard, with the airline retracting its claim to have found wreckage.

Falling in line with Greek authorities who said that floating debris did not belong to the plane, Airline vice-president Ahmed Adel told CNN, “We stand corrected; the debris is not our aircraft.”

The plane is presumed crashed in the Mediterranean, east of Greece and about 10 miles into Egyptian airspace.

Onboard were 56 passengers and 10 crew: two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three security personnel. The airline has stated two babies and one child were amongst those onboard. The nationality of the passengers include30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one person each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.

“Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected,” EgyptAir said in a statement.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered the navy, air force and army to join with Egyptian, French, Greek and US forces searching the Mediterranean for debris, according to The Guardian.

“Egypt’s aviation minister Sherif Fathy said terrorism was more likely than technical failure to be the cause of the crash,” The Guardian reported.

“The possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical problem,” Sherif Fathy told reporters.

Travel Weekly reported yesterday, EgyptAir has said an aircraft which took off from France’s Charles de Gaulle airport late on Wednesday night, has gone missing with 69 people on board, as reported by The Guardian.

National carrier EgyptAir said a plane carrying 69 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo had gone missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean sea.

“An official source at EgyptAir stated that Flight MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar,” the airline said on its official Twitter account.

Later Tweets by EgyptAir said the plane, which was travelling at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,280m), disappeared soon after entering Egyptian airspace. The aircraft was carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew.

According to flightradar24.com, the plane was an Airbus A320 and its last known position was above the Mediterranean sea, The Guardian has reported.

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