EgyptAir flight disappears from radar on way to Cairo from Paris

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/middleeas ... index.html

An EgyptAir flight heading from Paris to Cairo has disappeared from radar, the airline tweeted.

The airline’s media center said it will provide more information as it becomes available.

This story is developing.

TWITTER
EGYPTAIR ✔ ‎@EGYPTAIR
An informed source at EGYPTAIR stated that Flight no MS804,which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST),heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Tweets from @EGYPTAIR

Egypt has to fly to inform all competent authorities and searching by search and rescue teams.

She was on the rise and the ability of 37.000 ft and disappeared before entering Egyptian airspace by 80 miles (10 minutes).

An official source said Egypt Air Egypt plane flight number MS804 lost contact with radar at 02:45 Cairo time.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

A total of 69 people were on board -- 59 passengers and 10 crew.

[skylinechild]

Thanks for the update duane......

[Yeo]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/egyptair-fl ... -underway/

EgyptAir flight "swerves," plunges, then vanishes
CAIRO -- An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning over the Mediterranean Sea, and Egyptian and Greek officials said it had crashed and a search was underway for debris.

Egyptian aviation officials told The Associated Press the "possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed," as the plane hasn't landed in any of the nearby airports. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The Egyptian Aviation Ministry, however, later said it was too soon to declare a crash, and that the plane was officially missing.
The director of Greece's Civil Aviation Authority said air traffic controllers were in contact with the pilot of EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320, as it passed through Greek airspace.

"The pilot was in good spirits and thanked the controller in Greek," the authority said of the last communication with the flight crew, at approximately 2:48 a.m. local time (7:48 p.m. Wednesday, Eastern time), as the jet was cleared to leave Greek airspace.

The authority's director, Constantine Lyzerakos, told private Antenna television that controllers tried to make contact with the pilot again 10 miles before he exited the Greek Flight Information Range (FIR), but the pilot did not respond.

Lyzerakos said controllers continued trying to contact the pilot for about 10 minutes, until 3:39 a.m. Greek time (8:39 p.m. Wednesday, Eastern time) when the plane disappeared from the radar in Egyptian airspace. EgyptAir said it disappeared about 175 miles off Egypt's coast, north of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

A Greek official said the aircraft made sudden "swerves" off of it's charted course as it plunged more than 20,000 feet, and then disappeared from radar. The jet turned abruptly "90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right," Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said at a news conference.
The Reuters news agency cites a Greek defense ministry source as saying authorities were investigating an account from the captain of a merchant ship who reported a "flame in the sky" some 130 nautical miles south of the island of Karpathos.

Greece's Defense Ministry said in a statement that it had sent two military aircraft and a Navy frigate to the area south of Karpathos to join the search, and that two Super Puma helicopters based on the island were also ready to help, according to French news agency AFP.
"Right now we have to find where this aircraft is," former NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker told CBS News, explaining that once that was accomplished, the focus of the search would turn quickly to the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- the so-called "black boxes." Those instruments should contain information to help investigators determine what brought the plane down.

Rosenker, a CBS News transportation analyst, noted that whatever caused the plane to disappear happened at cruising altitude -- about 37,000 feet, and "very, very few accidents occur at that altitude, about 10 percent."

Rosenker described the Airbus jets, which are used widely across the globe, as "solid aircraft, workhorses in the industry."

Heading into a crisis meeting at the airport in Cairo on Thursday, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail was asked whether it was possible to rule out a terrorist attack.

"We can neither rule out or confirm any hypothesis at the moment," said Ismail. "We must first complete all the search procedures."

The Airbus A320 in question flew earlier Wednesday from Cairo to Paris, and before that also made a stop in Tunis, Tunisia.

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips notes that French authorities have tightened airline security since the terrorist attacks on Paris. Not only passengers, but anyone who gets near a plane in the French capital goes through screening, and people have been dismissed for security reasons.

The big question now, says Phillips, is whether somewhere -- be it in France, Egypt or Tunisia, security measures failed.
An EgyptAir official told The Associated Press that Egypt's Armed Force's Search and Rescue unit had received a distress signal from Flight 804's emergency equipment at 4:26 a.m. local time, but again, Egyptian officials later denied that claim, saying the information had been relayed prematurely.

CBS News aviation consultant and former "Miracle on the Hudson" pilot, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, said the lack of a distress call from the flight crew suggests a likely catastrophe in the air.

"Something must have happened that either prevented the pilots from communicating, or made them so busy that they couldn't get to a priority as low as talking on the radio. They were trying to maintain control of the airplane or fight a sudden catastrophic emergency, for example," Sullenberger told "CBS This Morning."
Egyptian armed forces were searching for the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew. The pilot had 6,000 flight hours. Earlier, the airline said 69 people were on board.

EgyptAir said there were 15 French passengers, 30 Egyptians, one Briton, two Iraqis, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and one Canadian on the flight.

Airbus said the missing Egyptian plane was delivered to EgyptAir in 2003 and had logged 48,000 flight hours. The European plane-maker said in a statement Thursday that the plane had engines made by Swiss-based engine consortium IAE, and had the serial number 2088.

Airbus said it was ready to help authorities investigating the disappearance and said "our concerns go out to all those affected."

Family members of passengers on board the missing flight arrived at the airports in both Cairo and Paris.

Reporters gathered in front of the small, empty EgyptAir counter at Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport. Airport staff said EgyptAir staff were on their way.

France remains under a state of emergency after Islamic extremist attacks killed 130 people in November. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to threaten France and Egypt, where it is known to operate in the volatile Sinai Peninsula.
Greece joined the search and rescue operation for the EgyptAir flight with two aircraft: one C-130 and one early warning aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said. They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.

An EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus in March. A man who admitted to the hijacking and is described by Cypriot authorities as "psychologically unstable" is in custody in Cyprus.
The incident renewed security concerns months after a Russian Metrojet passenger plane was blown out of the sky over the Sinai Peninsula. The Russian plane crashed in Sinai on Oct. 31, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and the local ISIS branch claimed responsibility for planting it.

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 1990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard, U.S. investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downward. But Egyptian officials rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting some mechanical reason caused the crash.

[xtech]

Wreck has been found

[K74T]

PLANE'S WRECKAGE FOUND

“We have found the wreckage,” EgyptAir Vice President Ahmed Adel said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.


"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."

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/19/middleeast/egyptair-flight-804-liveblog/

[BrotherHood]

At least this one was found. RIP to all the now deceased passengers and crew.

[The Paleontologist]

Reading some reports that the debris they found was not from the missing EgyptAir airline

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

EgyptAir flight MS804 crash: airline retracts claim about plane wreckage find

Here’s what we know so far about EgyptAir flight MS804, which went missing en route from Paris to Cairo at 2.30am local time Thursday morning.

• EgyptAir retracted its claim to have found wreckage belonging to MS804, falling in line with Greek authorities who said that floating debris did not belong to the plane. “We stand corrected,” Airline vice-president Ahmed Adel told CNN, adding that the recovered debris “is not our aircraft”.
• President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered the navy, air force and army to join with Egyptian, French, Greek and US forces searching the Mediterranean for debris. The debris falsely attributed to MS804 was found near the island of Karpathos, east of Crete.
• 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. French president François Holland, Egyptian prime minister Sherif Ismail and the White House said that terrorism could not be ruled out.
• No group has claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft, and search teams still have no sign of the Airbus A320 or the 66 people who were on board.
• The plane is presumed crashed in the Mediterranean, east of Greece and about 10 miles into Egyptian airspace. “Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected,” EgyptAir said in a statement.
• 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.
• 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 person each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.
• The plane, on its fifth journey of the day, was traveling at 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar. It had made a stop in Tunisia before flying to Paris.
• EgyptAir says the captain has 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320; the copilot has 2,766. The plane was manufactured in 2003.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2 ... ve-updates

[toyolink]

With these kinds of incidents becoming more frequent over the last few years, its time the airlines implement continuous real time tracking feeds of their aircrafts travel.
I understand that this capability is available and given the gaps in the air traffic systems maintained by the various countries, the justification is apparent.
I also wonder about what kind of risk assessment is engaged to determine flight plans in volatile regions.

[shogun]

"EgyptAir retracted its claim to have found wreckage belonging to MS804, falling in line with Greek authorities who said that floating debris did not belong to the plane. “


There's clearly way too much debris floating out there, because this seems to be happening with every crash in recent history

[K74T]

EgyptAir crash: 'Debris found' from flight MS804

Debris from the missing EgyptAir flight has been found floating in the Mediterranean, officials say.
Flight MS804 was en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew when it vanished early on Thursday.
Egypt's army spokesman said wreckage and passenger belongings were found 290km (180 miles) from Alexandria.
In a statement, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke of his "utmost sadness and regret" at the crash.
EgyptAir also confirmed the discovery on its Twitter feed. The find was made early on Friday, army spokesman Brig Gen Mohammed Samir said on his Facebook page.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36339614

[K74T]

Debris From EgyptAir Plane Found, Egyptian Officials Say

Human Remains, Plane Seat, Luggage Found Near Where EgyptAir Flight Disappeared, Greek Officials Say


Human remains, an airplane seat and luggage were found about 5 miles south of where an EgyptAir flight lost contact with radar and went missing over the Mediterranean Sea, a Greek official said today.

Egyptian officials also said wreckage and passenger belongings were spotted about 180 miles north off the coast of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Egypt.

A "potential oil slick" from the plane was also spotted by a satellite in the area where the aircraft went missing, the European Space Agency said today.

The missing plane was en route to Cairo from Paris when it disappeared early Thursday with 66 aboard. The plane lost contact with the radar tracking system at 2:45 a.m. at an altitude of 37,000 feet, according to EgyptAir.

Search teams today are scouring a wide area south of the Greek island of Crete for signs of the Airbus A320, Greece's Ministry of National Defense said this morning, while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi later said that investigations are continuing "to establish the truth and the causes of the crash."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/human-remains-plane-seat-luggage-found-egyptair-flight/story?id=39245591