EgyptAir Flight from Paris to Cairo Missing

Local Editor

An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar, the Egyptian airline said.

It said there are 56 passengers, seven crew members and three security personnel on board Flight MS804.

Passengers included 30 Egyptians, 15 French and 11 other nationalities, including one Briton.

The Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000ft [11,300m] when it went missing over the eastern Mediterranean. An official said the plane lost contact with radar at 02:45 Cairo time [00:45 GMT].

EgyptAir said search and rescue teams had been deployed.

EgyptAir said the plane disappeared about 10 miles [16km] into Egyptian air space and the relevant authorities had been notified.

The search operation is being coordinated with the Greek authorities.

In a later update, EgyptAir said that three children were among those on board the plane.

Aviation analyst Alex Macheras said that Airbus A320s were regularly used for short-haul budget flights and had "an amazing safety record".

The EgyptAir aircraft left Paris at 23:09 local time on Wednesday [21:09 GMT] and was scheduled to arrive in the Egyptian capital soon after 03:00 local time on Thursday.

In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus. The attacker later surrendered and all hostages were released.

Last October, a Russian passenger plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh crashed over the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 people on board. Officials in Moscow later said the aircraft was brought down by an explosive device.

Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] militants said they had bombed the plane.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team