This morning, officials announced that EgyptAir flight MS804 lost contact with radar, and crashed in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere near the Greece around 174 miles off the Egyptian coast.
While Greece banned flights from travelling within a 40-mile radius of the flight’s last point of signal, rescue teams from Egypt, France, and Greece all conducted a search for the aircraft that ended in wht is believed to be wreckage from the plane being found near Greece’s Karpathos Island.
With 66 people on board, the Airbus A320 commercial airline jet that normally travels the 1,993-mile distance in a little over 4 hours lost radar contact at 2:45 a.m. local time at 37,000 feet altitude.
Traveling with a total of 56 passengers and 10 crew members, EgyptAir confirms that all those aboard included 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis and one each from Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, including one child and two infants.
While Egypt’s Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail says it is too early to determine the cause of the crash, Greek Defense minister Panos Kammenos says that the flight made abrupt turns just before losing altitude and disappearing from the radar.
“It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360- degree turn toward the right, dropping from 38,000 to 15,000 feet and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet,” Kammenos said.
As authorities investigate, the possibility of terrorism has not been ruled out
“I don’t want to go to assumptions like others,” began the Egyptian Aviation Minister. “But, if you analyze the situation properly, the possibility…of having a terror attack is higher than having a technical [failure]”.
Relatives of those on board were gathered at Egypt’s Cairo International Airport this morning,waiting for word on their loved ones with EgyptAir tweeting that “has hosted the passengers’ families near to Cairo Airport”, providing “doctors, translators and all the necessary services.”
“It is our duty to know everything about the causes,” said French President Francois Hollande“As soon as we know the truth, we’ll have to draw all conclusions, be it an accident or any other hypothesis…At this stage, we must give priority to solidarity with the families”.
