The Egyptair in-flight service building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport, Egypt, today (Thursday). An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar this morning, the airline said (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
CAIRO (AP) — The latest news on EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo, carrying 66 people, which disappeared early today (Thursday). (All times are Egyptian.)
8:30 a.m.
Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed.
The officials say the search is now underway for the debris. They say 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.
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8:05 a.m.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France is ready to join the search operation if Egyptian authorities request it.
Speaking on RTL radio, Valls says the Paris airport authority has opened a crisis center to support the families coming to Charles de Gaulle Airport.
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7:55 a.m.
The French government says President Francois Hollande spoke with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi by telephone, and they agreed to “closely cooperate to establish the circumstances” in which the EgyptAir flight disappeared.
The government statement cited Hollande as saying he shares the anxiety of families, in a written statement.
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7:50 a.m.
EgyptAir says passengers on Flight 804 included 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one each from Algeria, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Chad, Kuwait, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
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7:25 a.m.
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.
Neither France’s Foreign Ministry nor Interior Ministry would comment on the disappearance of the jet or on whether it could have been an attack.
EgyptAir said the Airbus A320 was carrying 66 people on a flight from Paris to Cairo when disappeared from the radar at 2:45 a.m. Egypt time.
France remains under a state of emergency after Islamic extremist attacks killed 130 people in November. The Islamic State group continues to threaten the country.
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6:55 a.m.
Ahram, Egypt’s state-run newspaper, quoted an airport official as saying that the pilot had not sent a distress signal before the plane disappeared early Thursday. The last contact with the plane was 10 minutes before it vanished, he was quoted as saying.
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6:50 a.m.
The maker of the EgyptAir plane that has gone missing on a flight from Paris to Cairosays it’s unclear what happened.
Airbus spokesman Jacques Rocca says today (Thursday) the company is aware of the disappearance but “we have no official information at this stage of the certitude of an accident.”
The A320 is one of the most widely used Airbus planes, a single-aisle plane that usually seats about 150 people and is used for short- and medium-range flights around the world. Nearly 4,000 are in operation, according the company’s website.
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6:45 a.m.
Greece is participating in the search and rescue operation for the missing EgyptAir flightwith two aircraft. Helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.
The Hellenic National Defense General Staff said one frigate is also heading to the area where the plane disappeared and is about 100 nautical miles or 4 hours away at this time.
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