EgyptAir reports that a flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 on board on Thursday, disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean Sea. Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department believed the Airbus A320 probably crashed into the sea.


The aircraft was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two infants, and 10 crew, EgyptAir said. Earlier it said 59 passengers were aboard but then revised the figure.

The pilot had clocked up 6,275 hours of flying experience, including 2,101 hours on the A320, while the first officer had 2,766 hours, the airline said.

Greece said it had deployed aircraft and a frigate to the area to help with the search.

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

The weather was clear at the time the plane disappeared, according to weather reports.

Speed and altitude data from aviation website FlightRadar24.com indicated the plane was cruising at the time it disappeared.
Families of passengers rushed to Cairo International Airport shortly after dawn while the Egyptian and Greek military scrambled aircraft and boats to search for the plane.

"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 traveling at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,280 meters), disappeared in Egyptian air space at 02:30 a.m., some 280 kms (165 miles) from the Egyptian coastline, before it was due to land at 03:15 a.m.

"There was nothing unusual," EgyptAir vice chairman Ahmed Adel told Reuters. "The search and rescue aircraft from the Egyptian air force are at the position where we lost contact. They are still looking and so far there is nothing found."

http://.com/2016/05/egyptair-flight-carrying-66-passengers.html

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