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| EgyptAir airplane (Image: The Telegraph) |
Ahram-Online materials -
CAIRO: An EgyptAir flight vanished early this morning en route from Paris to
Cairo. Radar signals from flight MS804 were lost at 2:30am Cairo time, EgyptAir
have said, around the time the flight entered Egyptian airspace over the
Mediterranean.
The commercial
flight left Paris at 11:09pm GMT and was due to land at Cairo airport at
03:15am local time.
Sources told
Al-Ahram Arabic website that air traffic controllers in Athens had failed to
establish communication with the pilot after the plane went off the radar.
Fifty-six
passengers and 10 crew members are on board.
Authorities say
they lost contact with the plane as it was cruising at an altitude of 37,000
feet at 2:45am Cairo local time.
Rescue teams and
the Egyptian armed forces have been searching the area where the plane was last
spotted on the radar.
The company
identified the plane as an Airbus 320 manufactured in 2003.
The pilot, who
was identified by sources as Captain Mohamed Shokeir, has over 6,000 flight
hours while the copilot has over 2,000 hours of flight.
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| A map showing the place where Egyptian airplane disappeared from radars and probably crashed (Image: NBC News) |
Meanwhile Egyptian
investigators looking into the crash of an EgyptAir jet in the Mediterranean
said on Saturday they were analysing data including signals sent from the
aircraft, but it was too soon to reach any conclusions.
They said in a
statement they were assessing material from air traffic control, aircraft and
crew documents, and aircraft data management systems AIRMAN and ACARS, which
download maintenance and fault data to an airline operator.
"It is far
too early to make judgments or decisions on a single source of information such
as the ACARS messages, which are signals or indicators that may have different
causes (and) thus require further analysis," the statement said.
French Foreign
Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Saturday that no theory on the cause of the
EgyptAir crash has been ruled out, after revelations of smoke in the cabin
minutes before the disaster.
"At this
time... all theories are being examined and none is favoured," he told a
news conference after meeting with relatives of passengers who were aboard the
doomed A320 which left Paris early Thursday for Cairo.
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| Egyptian military vessels on the search of the debris of the airplane and black boxes (Image: Egyptian Armed Forces website) |
"The
reports circulating here and there, which by the way are sometimes
contradictory, give rise too often to nearly definitive conclusions,"
Ayrault said, warning of the "painful tension" caused to the families
of the victims.
"Finding
the plane is of course the priority, along with finding the black boxes to
analyse them, which will allow us to answer legitimate questions," he
said, referring to the voice and flight data recorders.
France's
"dual goal" is to offer "solidarity with the families but also
transparency... on the circumstances of this plane's disappearance," said
the foreign minister, who was joined by Egypt's ambassador to France at the
meeting with the family members.
The passengers
included 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, two Iraqis, two Canadians, and
citizens from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and
Sudan. They included a boy and two babies.
Seven crew
members and three security personnel were also on board.
Egyptian
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged local and international media outlets
Sunday not to jump to conclusions about the crash of EgyptAir flight MS804,
adding that all possible causes for the disaster were being reviewed
thoroughly.
"Investigations
take time, [so] there is no need to rush in to conclusions now," El-Sisi
told a crowd of dozens during a speech to inaugurate the expansion of the Misr
Fertilizer Production Company in Damietta.
El-Sisi added
that Egyptian and French officials are coordinating investigations into the
causes of the crash of the Airbus 320.
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| The debris of EgyptAir crashed airplane (Image: Reuters) |
The Egyptian
President revealed during his speech that early Sunday a Ministry of Petroleum
submarine will search for the airplane's two black boxes.
While offering
his condolences to the families of MS804 victims, El-Sisi said that he was
informed of the crash at 4am Thursday, after which search and rescue teams from
Egyptian Air Force and Navy were promptly ordered to aid in the international
search for wreckage of the missing plane.
Praising the
speedy response state institutions made to the EgyptAir MS804 crash, the
Egyptian president demanded officials involved in the ongoing investigations
keep the public informed of any potential discoveries regarding the cause of
the disaster.
El-Sisi's
comments on Sunday marked the first time the president had spoken publicly
about Thursday's MS804 crash that is believed to have killed all 66 people
onboard.
"There is an attempt to obstruct our
investigations, but amazingly that pressure only strengthens our resolve,"
El-Sisi said.
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