EgyptAir flight 804 Goes Missing

Egypt Air has confirmed that flight 804, traveling from Paris to Cairo, has disappeared with 56 passengers and 10 crew members on board. 

AP quoted Egyptian aviation officials saying the plane has crashed. The officials said the “possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed,” and the search is now underway for the debris, according to the news agency. 

According to Egypt Air, the plane took off from Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport shortly after 11pm local time. “At 4:26am , rescue teams affiliated with the Egyptian armed forces have received an SOS message from the emergency unit of the missing plane,” the airline said in a tweet. 

Three of those on board were children, including one infant, and three of the crew members were security personnel, EgyptAir reported. Early Thursday morning, the plane disappeared from radar, the airline tweeted.

 The Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000 feet when it disappeared 16km after entering Egyptian airspace, the airline said. Egypt and Greece have launched maritime searches for missing flight, the Egyptian Army said. 

EgyptAir has also published a list of passengers on board by nationality. 30 Egyptians, 15 French nationals, two Iraqis, one Brit, one Belgian, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Canadian, one Saudi and one Kuwaiti are on board, the airline said. 

The French government will hold an emergency meeting at 06:30 GMT to discuss the plane’s disappearance, the French President Francois Hollande’s office has said.