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Egyptair flight MS804 from Paris Charles De Gaulle airport to Cairo has gone missing over the eastern Mediterranean sea.
At 05:00 Egypt local time (03:00Z UTC, 08:30 IST) the airline reported that the aircraft lost radar contact around 02:45 local time (00:45Z) whilst cruising at 37,000ft (FL370) about 210 nautical miles north-north-west of Cairo. It was still in Greek airspace 80 miles from entering Egyptian airspace.
The flight was being operated by an Airbus A320 jet, registration SU-GCC, with 56 passengers which included three children, seven crew and three Egyptian security officials on board.
As per Egyptair, the flight was due to land in Cairo at 03:10 local has not yet landed at any airport within reach of the aircraft. A search and rescue operation has been launched. The airline indicated the flight commander has 6,275 hours of flying experience with 2,101 hours on the A320, and the first officer 2,766 hours flying experience.
The aircraft is of average age, having been manufactured in 2003.
The New York Times, quoting Reuters, which quoting the Egyptian state newspaper Ahram, said the crew had made no distress call, and that the last contact was 10 minutes before plane vanished. The paper also quotes Ehab Mohy el-Deen, the head of Egypt’s air navigation authority saying “They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished,”
Egypt has been fighting the terror group, Islamic State in the Sinai peninsula. In October 2015, a Russian charter A321 broke-up mid-air soon after take-off from the resort of Sharm el Sheikh. All 224 souls on board perished.
Egyptair suffered embarrassment when a psychologically ill passenger on a domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo hijacked, and diverted it to Cyprus in March.
Egyptair statement on missing flight MS804
19/05/2016
Cairo – May 19 , 2016- An informed source at EGYPTAIR declared that its flight number MS804 had 56 passengers onboard including 1 child and 2 infants in addition to 3 EGYPTAIR security personnel and 7 cabin crew with a total of 66 persons onboard. Noteworthy that the aircraft pilot has 6275 of flying hours including 2101 flying hours on Airbus 320. As for the co-pilot he has 2766 flying hours. The manufacturing date of the aircraft in 2003. Special teams from the Egyptian Armed Forces were are at site located for inspection and rescue. EGYPTAIR is following up with the concerned authorities through EGYPTAIR’s IOCC. EGYPTAIR has offered toll free numbers for passengers’ relatives as follow: 080077770000 from any landline in Egypt. +202 25989320 from any mobile phone or from outside Egypt
