The flight
was en route from Paris to Cairo when it disappeared from radar three hours
into the flight. It had 66 people on board.
Egypt
confirmed it found wreckage and floating objects in the sea off the Greek
island of Karpathos, east of Crete. The objects included apparent life jackets
and plastic material.
Egyptian and Greek teams have begun a search and recovery
mission. “Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and
we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected,” EgyptAir said in a
statement.
Egypt’s
aviation minister Sherif Fathy said terrorism was more likely than technical
failure to be the cause of the crash. “The possibility of having a terror
attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical [problem],” he told
reporters.
Other
authorities were more cautious. French president François Holland, Egyptian
prime minister Sherif Ismail and the White House said that terrorism could not
be ruled out, though Barack Obama’s spokesman added that he knew of no
intelligence that “ruled anything in” either.
The plane
made “sudden swerves” before dropping off radar over the Mediterranean, Greek
defense minister Panos Kammeno said. The plane made a 90-degree turn left, and
then dropped from 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet before swerving 360 degrees right,
he said. EgyptAir said contact was lost around 10 miles (16km) inside Egyptian
airspace at 2.30am local time (00.30 GMT).
French and
Greek aircraft, one US navy plane, eight merchant ships and a number of
Egyptian vessels have joined the search for debris.
The plane was
carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew: two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three
security personnel. The airline said two babies and one child were on board.
Among the
passengers were 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one each from the UK,
Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, confirmed that a British passport
holder was on board the plane.
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