EgyptAir Plane Goes Missing Midair
by Daniel McCarthy /An EgyptAir Airbus A330-300. Photo: Laurent ERRERA.
Update: According to reports, the plane has been found near the Greek island of Karpathos.
An EgyptAir Flight carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar as it entered Cairo airspace over the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday morning.
Greece officials report that air traffic controllers tried to reach the Airbus A320 as it crossed through their airspace but got no response. At 2:45 p.m. local time, it swerved sharply and then plunged 37,000 feet into the Mediterranean.
French President Francois Hollande has confirmed that the plane has crashed. “The information that we have been able to gather—the prime minister, the members of the government, and of course the Egyptian authorities—unfortunately confirm for us that this plane crashed at sea and has been lost,” he said in a statement.
The New York Times quoted Ehab Mohy el-Deen, the head of Egypt's air navigation authority, as saying: "They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished."
Egypt’s civil aviation minister Sherif Fathi said the crash is more likely the result of terrorism than a technical issue, though EgyptAir reiterated in a statement that “the reason of disappearance hasn’t been yet confirmed.”
The plane, which was manufactured in 2003, had 48,000 total flight hours, and routine maintenance was done on it in Cairo on Wednesday.
There were no Americans on board. Of the 66 crew members and passengers, 30 were Egyptian, 15 French, 2 Iraqi, and one each was from Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Chad, Portugal, Sudan, Britain, and Canada. The passengers’ families are being hosted by EgyptAir near Cairo Airport.