An AirEgypt passenger plane with 66 passengers and crew on board disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea early on Thursday morning. The Airbus A320 flying from Paris to Cairo is believed to have crashed into the sea 10 minutes into Egyptian airspace. Here below are our LIVE UPDATES on the unfolding story.
16:45 – Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said that the Greek authorities are calling on friendly nations that have satellites covering the eastern Mediterranean to cooperate in establishing the cause of the EgyptAir plane crash, according to the ANA-MPA news agency.
15:05 – A Greek military official says that an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight, reports AP.
The official says the items were found 370 km south-southeast of the island of Crete but still within the Egyptian air-traffic control area. One of the items was oblong, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.
15:00 – According to AP, the head of Russia's top domestic security agency says the crashed Egyptian jet has apparently been brought down by a terror attack.
Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday that "in all likelihood it was a terror attack."
Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service, called for a joint operation to track down those responsible for that "monstrous attack".
Last October, a Russian plane flying from Egypt crashed into the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device.
14:30 – According to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said in a press conference that "the crash was more likely a terrorist operation and not a technical malfunction."
13:50 – Sherif Fathy, Minister of Civil Aviation, has held a press conference to update journalists on the search for the plane and the Egyptian response so far.
Sherif said that he met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who had convened the National Security Council to discuss the matter. Sisi told Fathi it was necessary to "Follow the path of facts without relying on unproven talk."
Fathi said that no cause for the incident could be ruled out so far, but he said the plane was considered "missing" until debris had been found confirming a crash.
13:30 – The Greek civil aviation authority has released a timeline of the journey over Greece of the EgyptAir flight prior to its disappearance.
13:05 – Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos says the EgyptAir flight made abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar shortly after entering Cairo's air traffic control area of responsibility, according to AP.
Kammenos said the aircraft was 10-15 miles inside the Egyptian area and at an altitude of 37,000 feet. He says: "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," he said.
12:50 – Greece's Civil Aviation Authority says air-traffic controllers' last communication with the EgyptAir pilot found him in good spirits, according to AP. Greek air-traffic controllers lost contact as the flight headed into Egyptian airspace.
The Civil Aviation Authority says the flight entered the Greek air traffic control area, or FIR, at 02:24 Greek time (23:24 GMT), was identified and approved on its flight course and passed into the next section of air traffic control and was approved by the controller for the exit point of the Greek FIR.
Air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilot again at 03:27 local time for the handover of the plane to Cairo's area of responsibility, but "despite repeated calls, the aircraft did not respond."
Air traffic control then called on the emergency frequency and again there was no response. At 03:29, the aircraft was over the exit point of the Athens FIR, and at 03:29.40 it vanished from radar. The Greek authority said the military was asked for help in case the plane could be located on a military radar, but there was no sign of it. Search and rescue operations began at 03:45.
12:43 – A car carrying a team from the Egyptian Red Crescent arrived at the Kamal Elwy building at Cairo International Airport at noon on Thursday to provide psychological support to the families of missing passengers, according to MENA.
Six ambulances also arrived at the airport during the morning to provide support, said the state-owned news agency.
12:35 – French President Francois Hollande has confirmed the crash of the EgyptAir flight, according to AP, and says no hypothesis has been ruled out, including an accident or a terrorist act.
Hollande said: "When we have the truth we need to draw all the conclusions."
Speaking at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Hollande added: "At this stage, we must give priority to solidarity toward the families" of the victims.
12:31 – Paris prosecutors say they are opening an investigation into the disappearance of the Paris-Cairo EgyptAir plane, according to Reuters.
12:21 – Reuters reports that Greek authorities said the search is still underway off a remote Greek island for possible remains of the missing EgyptAir aircraft, with nothing being found.
Air and sea assets of the Greek defence ministry were searching south of the island of Karpathos, where the aircraft with 66 people on board is thought to have vanished at about 0030 GMT.
"Absolutely nothing has been found so far," a senior Greek coastguard official told Reuters.
12:00 – French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says "nothing is confirmed" regarding the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight and is warning against some unverified information in circulation.
Ayrault, speaking after meeting with families gathered at a hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport, tells journalists the priority is "solidarity" with them and extended a "message of compassion and support."
He says French authorities are in direct contact with Greek and Egyptian authorities.
11:55 – The French military says a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants has been diverted to help search for the EgyptAir flight.
Military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron told The Associated Press that the jet is joining the Egypt-led search effort, and the French navy may send another plane and a ship to the zone.
He said the Falcon was on a surveillance mission as part of EU efforts to monitor migrants crossing the Mediterranean toward Europe.
The French government has offered military help to find the plane, en route from Paris to Cairo when it disappeared.
11:45 – The armed forces announced that it is dispatching rescue teams on planes and boats to search for possible survivors of the Egyptian crash in the Mediterranean Sea.
Armed Forces Spokesperson Ahmed Samir said that armed forces received information from the Civil Aviation Authority saying an airbus plane belonging to EgyptAir disappeared at 2:36 am on Thursday. Samir added the plane took off from Charles de Gualle Airport and was bound to Cairo Airport.
Samir called on media to verify news on the plane accident from authentic sources before publishing.
10:39 – A source from the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority announced that the Egyptian plane, carrying 66 people and lost on Thursday, has crashed off the coast of the island of Karpathos in southeast Aegean Sea, while it was in Egyptian airspace.
The source told AFP the plane disappeared from Greek radar screens at about 00.29 GMT, while it was in Egyptian airspace and crashed about 130 miles from the island of Karpathos, which lies between the islands of Rhodes and Crete.
The information contained in the AFP report has not been confirmed by either EgyptAir or the Egyptian government.
09:57 – Mohamed Samir, the army’s official spokesperson, posted a message on Facebook denying earlier reporters that the armed forces has received a distress signal from the disappeared plane.
09:27 – Sherif Fathy, Minister of Civil Aviation, has arrived at EgyptAir Crisis Center after cutting his visit to Jeddah short.
"He has directed all the concerned authorities to take all necessary action for dealing with the crisis," the EgyptAir Twitter account reads.
09:02 – A distress signal was detected in the general vicinity where the EgyptAir flight disappeared two hours after it disappeared, but it may not have come from the plane, Ahmed Adel, Vice Chairman of EgyptAir's Holding Company, tells CNN.
He was clarifying an earlier EgyptAir statement that said a distress call was detected from the plane at 4:26 am local time, two hours after the aircraft disappeared from radar.
Adel says the distress signal could have come from another vessel in the Mediterranean.
08:55 – Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo has crashed, AP reports. However, the claims have not been officially confirmed yet.
08:46 – An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo went missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt's national airline said.
Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the Airbus A320 probably crashed into the sea.
Aboard the flight were 30 Egyptians, 15 French nationals, one Briton and one Belgian.
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."
