EgyptAir MS804 Disappears from Radar; All 66, Including Two Infants, Presumed Dead
- Details
- Category: World News - Europe
- Published on Thursday, 19 May 2016 07:19
- Written by Janet Walker
Egyptians Air officials are denying all reports of a mid-air explosion as the cause behind the disappearance of Egyptian Air Flight MS804 that vanished from radar over the Mediterranean Sea ten miles into Egyptian Air space.
EgyptAir Flight MS804, which departed from Frances’ Charles De Gaulle airport at 11:00pm Wednesday for a relatively short four-hour flight that should have landed at Cairo International Airport just after 2:00am.
France 24 broke the news of the downed airline during regular programming Wednesday night at 9:30PST and local time of 6:30am Thursday in both Paris, France and Cairo, Egypt.
MS804 flight manifest indicate the Airbus A320 carried 66 passengers and crew. CNN has listed the nationalities of passengers as 30 Egyptians, 15 French, 2 Iraqi, 1 Briton, 1 Belgian, 1 Kuwaiti, 1 Saudi, 1 Chadian, 1 Portuguese from Algeria, 1 Canadian and 1 Sudanese. Two infants were on board. Their nationality has not been released.
Greece Air Traffic controllers indicated Flight 804 entered Greece Airspace and they were unable to raise the doomed airliner. The flight passed quickly through Grecian air space into Egyptian Air space where officials stated they were never able to raise the ill-fated airbus.
Greek government official indicated MS804 made swerving, jagged, movements and plunged from 37,000 to 15,000ft. Officials indicate the pilot swerved again “90 degrees to the left and then 360 degrees to the right” before vanishing.
Terrorism has not been ruled out, although initial reports of a mid-air catastrophic explosion have been, at least during the initial phases of the investigation. There is no surface debris field. A nosedive plunge would have break up on impact which would account for the absence of a surface debris field.
Malaysian Air Flight MH370, went missing under similar circumstances, plunging into the Indian ocean after burning fuel in what hasn’t been official ruled as a suicide ditch by the pilot, never produced the surface debris. Recognizable pieces of fuselage weren’t discovered for over two years.
The main variances between the two flights would be the vast difference in the search and recovery grids with Malaysian Air Flights was more than 10,000sq miles of ocean. The underwater current finally carried the pieces to Australia.
Egyptian Air Flight MS804 was downed in the Mediterranean Sea, near the Greek Island of Karpathos, which limits the search and recovery area to the shores of five nations. Reports of large floating objects have been circulated through the various international media without confirmation of origin.
This is a developing story.