BY KEVIN SAWYER… An Egypt Air passenger flight flying from Paris to Cairo on Wednesday vanished from radar screens as it traveled over the Mediterranean Sea. There were 66 people on board the flight and speculation abounds but it is considered, even by the president of France, to have crashed into the sea.
There were 56 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the Airbus A320 and it disappeared as it began to enter into Egyptian airspace. The plane was at 37,000 feet when all radar and communication contact was lost with the passenger jet. Speculation from air accident experts is that it was not likely to have been a mechanical failure because there was no contact and no warning of any kind before all contact was lost with the plane.
Confused and grieving family members gathered for support and information updates
Further speculation is that, because of the sudden contact loss, that there may have been a bomb on the plane or that the plane was possibly hit by a missile. None of the crew had sent any sort of communication with ground control so, whatever did happen experts postulate, happened quickly and without warning. This is the reasoning behind why the investigators are leaning toward it having been an explosion on board.
The French Foreign Minister, Jean – Marc Ayrault, was more diplomatic as he met with the grieving families and said, “It’s obviously a moment of intense emotion. These families have just learned of the disappearance of the Egyptian aircraft 20 minutes before landing. It has just disappeared and given no signals since. We are in direct contact with the Egyptian and Greek authorities. Information is going around but nothing is confirmed.”
France has offered its assistance in searching for the aircraft and all on board. Egypt has already begun the search and are currently being aided by search and rescue teams and ships from Greece. Egypt Air flight MS804 left Charles deGaulle International in Paris at 11:10 PM Paris time on Wednesday. It had been in the air for nearly four hours and was 175 miles off the coast of Egypt near the city of Alexandria. They were officially about 10 miles into Egyptian air space.
Egypt Air confirmed that there was no freight or cargo on board of any kind.
PHOTO CREDITS: The Associated Press / EgyptAir / ABC News