Nothing has been overruled in the catastrophic Egypt airline crash

May 19, 2016

ATHENS – An EgyptAir flight which disappeared from radar screens en route from Paris to Cairo early Thursday, crashed into the sea off the southern Greek island of Karpathos while in Egyptian airspace, a Greece aviation source told AFP.
“At around 0029 GMT (3:29 am) when it was in Egyptian airspace, the plane disappeared from Greek radars… it crashed around 130 nautical miles off the island of Karpathos,” the source told AFP.
According to Guardian,There has been an unconfirmed report that the plane came down 130 miles off the Greek Island of Karpathos.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism, Reuters reports.
“Search operations are ongoing at this time for the airplane in the area where it is believed to have lost contact,” he told reporters at Cairo airport.
Asked by a journalist if he could rule out that terrorists were behind the incident, Ismail said: “We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything. All the search operations must be concluded so we can know the cause.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair a national security council meeting on Thursday morning, a statement from his office said.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, has discussed the missing plane in a telephone call with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry.
The French embassy in Cairo said Ayrault expressed the solidarity of France with Egypt, “in this terrible ordeal”.
Ayrault is also reported to have set up a “crisis cell” at the French embassy in Cairo. EgyptAir said 15 of the people on board were French nationals.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, has discussed the missing plane in a telephone call with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry.
The French embassy in Cairo said Ayrault expressed the solidarity of France with Egypt, “in this terrible ordeal”.
Ayrault is also reported to have set up a “crisis cell” at the French embassy in Cairo. EgyptAir said 15 of the people on board were French nationals.

Telegraph reported EgyptAir flight was carrying 56 passengers and ten crew.
The Flight MS804 lost contact with radar at 02:45 Cairo time (00.45 GMT).
Egyptian aviation officials say the plane ‘crashed’ and that a search for debris is underway
Greek airport sources say the crash site is off the Greek island of Karpathos
The plane left Paris Charles de Gaulle at 11.09pm on Wednesday and was heading to Cairo
The plane lost contact ten miles after entering Egyptian air space.

Source: AFP, Telegraph, Guardian , 19 May 2016

Read More:

CAIRO, Egypt – Egyptian aviation officials said an Egypt Air flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed after it disappeared from radar early Thursday morning.
Egypt Air Flight 804 was lost from radar at 2:45 a.m. local time when it was flying at 37,000 feet, the airline said. It said the Airbus A320 had vanished 10 miles after it entered Egyptian airspace.
The officials said the search is now underway for the debris in the southern Mediterranean Sea. They said the “possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed,” as the plane hasn’t landed in any of the nearby airports.
Egyptian military aircraft were searching for the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew members. The pilot had 6,000 flight hours. Earlier, the airline said 69 people were on board.
A Greek defense ministry source told Reuters that a merchant ship captain reported a “flame in the sky” 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos.
Egypt Air later said those on board included 15 French passengers, 30 Egyptians, one Briton, two Iraqis, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Belgian, one Algerian and one Canadian.
Egypt’s state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted an airport official as saying the pilot did not send a distress call, and that last contact with the plane was made 10 minutes before it disappeared from radar. It did not identify the official.
However, CNN reported that a distress signal was received from the vicinity of the area where the plane was last known to be, but it is not known if the signal came from the flight.
Airbus is aware of the disappearance, but “we have no official information at this stage of the certitude of an accident,” the company’s spokesman Jacques Rocca said.
The Paris airport authority and the French civil aviation authority would not immediately comment.
Queries about the missing plane sent out to the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency were not returned early Thursday.
French president Francois Hollande spoke with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on the phone and agreed to “closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances” in which the Egypt Air flight disappeared, according to a statement issued in Paris.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said no scenario could be ruled out at the moment as for what caused the plane to disappear. France, he told RTL radio, was “ready” to join the search operation if Egyptian authorities requested his country’s assistance.
Around 15 relatives of passengers on board the missing flight have arrived at Cairo airport. Airport authorities brought doctors to the scene after several distressed family members collapsed.
Neither France’s Foreign Ministry nor Interior Ministry would comment on the disappearance or on whether it could have been an attack.
France remains under a state of emergency after Islamic extremist attacks killed 130 people in a spree of attacks in November claimed by the extremist Islamic State group.
Greece joined the search and rescue operation for the Egypt Air flight with two aircraft: one C-130 and one early warning aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said. They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.
An Egypt Air plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus in March. A man who admitted to the hijacking and is described by Cypriot authorities as “psychologically unstable” is in custody in Cyprus.
Source: CBS New York/AP, 19 May 2016

Read more:

CAIRO (AP) May 19 – An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said.
EgyptAir Flight 804 was lost from radar at 2:45 a.m. local time when it was flying at 37,000 feet, the airline said. It said the Airbus A320 had vanished 10 miles (16 kilometers) after it entered Egyptian airspace.
Egyptian armed forces were searching for the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew. The pilot had 6,000 flight hours. Earlier, the airline said 69 people were on board.
EgyptAir later confirmed the nationalities of those on board as including 15 French passengers, 30 Egyptians, one Briton, two Iraqis, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and one Canadian.
Egypt’s state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted an airport official as saying that the pilot did not send a distress call, and that the last contact with the plane was 10 minutes before it disappeared from radar. It did not identify the official.
Airbus is aware of the disappearance, but “we have no official information at this stage of the certitude of an accident,” the company’s spokesman Jacques Rocca said.
The Paris airport authority and the French civil aviation authority would not immediately comment.
Around 15 family members of passengers on board the missing flight have arrived at Cairo airport. Airport authorities brought doctors to the scene after several distressed family members collapsed.
Reporters gathered in front of the small, empty EgyptAir counter at Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport. Airport staff said EgyptAir staff were on their way.
Neither France’s Foreign Ministry nor Interior Ministry would comment on the disappearance or on whether it could have been an attack.
France remains under a state of emergency after Islamic extremist attacks killed 130 people in November. The Islamic State group continues to threaten France.
The plane most likely crashed into the sea, Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian civil aviation authority, said according to a report by SkyNews Arabia. However, Raslan later told the Associated Press that it was too early to tell if the plane had crashed, and denied speaking to SkyNews Arabia.
Greece joined the search and rescue operation for the EgyptAir flight with two aircraft: one C-130 and one early warning aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said. They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.
An EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus in March. A man who admitted to the hijacking and is described by Cypriot authorities as “psychologically unstable” is in custody in Cyprus.
The incident renewed security concerns months after a Russian passenger plane was blown out of the sky over the Sinai Peninsula. The Russian plane crashed in Sinai on Oct. 31, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the extremist Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for planting it.
In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 1990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard, U.S. investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downward. But Egyptian officials rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting some mechanical reason caused the crash.