Seven hours after flight MS804 disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean, officials have confirmed that it crashed.
A huge search operation is underway after the EgyptAir plane took off from France’s Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday night and vanished with 66 people on board.
The Airbus A320, which departed from Paris last night at 23.09, lost contact just 20 minutes from its final destination of Cairo.
In a statement, an Airbus spokesman said:
“Airbus regrets to confirm that an A320 operated by Egyptair was lost at around 02.30 am (Egypt local time) today over the Mediterranean sea.
“Airbus stands-by ready to provide full technical assistance to French Investigation Agency – BEA – and to the authorities in charge of the investigation.
“Our concerns go to all those affected. Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed and cleared by the authorities for release.”
Early reports suggest the plane crashed off the Greek island of Karpathos in Egyptian airspace.
Airbus regrets to confirm the loss of an Egyptair A320, flight #MS804. Statement #1: https://t.co/M2bCgegqH5 1/2
— Airbus (@Airbus) May 19, 2016
While there is no solid information as to what happened to the aircraft, Jean-Paul Troadec, the former chief of France’s air accident investigation unit, the BEA, said its disappearance was “almost certainly” caused by “an attack”.
Families have been arriving here at Cairo airport for news of their loved ones on missing Egyptair flight #MS804 pic.twitter.com/XQu9w8MbQS
— Quentin Sommerville (@sommervillebbc) May 19, 2016
While the Telegraph first reported that Egyptian aviation officials told news agencies the plane ‘crashed’ and that search teams were looking for debris, confusingly, EgyptAir sent a tweet warning against what it calls “misinformation” and asking media to wait for official updates.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) followed suit, tweeting:
Aware of the media reports concerning Egyptair flight #MS804. No further Information at this stage. Following the developments very closely.
— EASA (@EASA) May 19, 2016
Meanwhile nearby ships are scrambling to join in the search and a press conference is due to take place at 11.30am.
Nearby vessels scrambling to help with #MS804 search. Our thoughts are with the #EgyptAir passengers & families. pic.twitter.com/FszbDT7rUK
— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) May 19, 2016
More as we have it…
