An EgyptAir jetliner bound from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard crashed in the Mediterranean Sea early yesterday. Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the Airbus had first swerved 90 degrees to the left, then spun through 360 degrees to the right. After plunging from 37,000 feet to 15,000, it vanished from Greek radar screens. Egypt’s aviation minister said it may have been a terrorist attack. There were no immediate signs of any survivors. Egypt Air Flight 804, an Airbus A320 with 56 passengers and 10 crew members, went down about halfway between the Greek island of Crete and Egypt’s northern coastline after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport, authorities said.
In Cairo, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi cautioned that the disaster is still under investigation. But he said the possibility it was a terror attack “is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure.” Russia’s security chief, Alexander Bortnikov, said: “In all likelihood it was a terror attack.”
The airline said the Egyptian military had received an emergency signal from the aircraft, an apparent reference to an Emergency Locator Transmitter, a battery-powered device designed to automatically give out a signal in the event of a crash or sudden loss of altitude. The Egyptian military said it did not receive a distress call, and Egypt’s state-run daily Al- Ahram quoted an unidentified airport official as saying the pilot did not send one.
The absence of a distress call suggests that whatever sent the aircraft plummeting into the sea was sudden and brief. Egyptian security officials said they were running background checks on the passengers to see if any had links to extremists.
The airline’s Vice President Ahmed Adel has said the wreckage of the missing plane had been found. “There are so many reasons why a plane can fall from the sky and crash. We have no explanations at this stage. We need more investigation,” he said. Egypt’s envoy to France said Greek authorities had informed his counterpart in Athens that they had found blue and white debris corresponding to EgyptAir’s colours.
Later, the Egyptian civil aviation ministry said that Greek authorities have found “floating material” that looked like debris from the missing aircraft. Greece deployed aircraft and a frigate to search for the missing Airbus and officials said they had found pieces of plastic and two life vests that appeared to have come from an aircraft in the sea 370 kilometers (230 miles) south of Crete. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation, including an attack like the one blamed for bringing down a Russian airliner Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last year.
Egypt said it would lead the investigation and that France would participate. Other countries also offered to help, including Britain and the United States. In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama received a briefing on the disappearance from his adviser for homeland security and counter-terrorism, the White House said.
According to Greece’s civil aviation chief, calls from Greek air traffic controllers to flight MS804 went unanswered just before it left Greek airspace, and it disappeared from radar screens soon afterwards. The airline in a statement said: “EgyptAir sincerely conveys its deepest sorrow to the families and friends of the passengers onboard Flight MS804.
Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected. The Egyptian Investigation Team in co-operation with the Greek counterpart are still searching for other remains of the missing plane.”
According to Greece’s civil aviation chief, calls from Greek air traffic controllers to flight MS804 went unanswered just before it left Greek airspace, and it disappeared from radar screens soon afterwards. There was no official indication of a possible cause, whether technical failure or sabotage by hard-line Islamists who have targeted airports, airliners and tourist sites in Europe, Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern countries over the past few years.
Wreckage of EgyptAir flight MS804 has been found south of the Greek island of Karpathos, Egyptian aviation officials confirmed. The Airbus A320 is a widely used twin engine plane that operates on short and medium haul routes.
Nearly 4,000 A320s are in use around the world. The last deadly crash involving one of the planes was in March 2015, when one of the pilots of a German wings flight deliberately slammed it into the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard. Airbus said the aircraft in yesterday’s disaster was delivered to Egypt Air in 2003 and had logged 48,000 flight hours. The pilot had more than 6,000 hours of flying time, authorities said. In March, an Egypt Air plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus. A man described by authorities as mentally unstable was taken into custody.
