Thu, May 19, 2016
Aircraft Went Off Radar At 37000 Feet, With No Reports Of Problems
ANN Realtime Update 05.19.16 1110 EDT
The BBC is now reporting that the airplane made several distinct turns before it disappeared from radar.
Greece's Defense Minister said that the A320 "turned 90 degrees left and then made a 360 degree turn to the right" before beginning to descend.
Other reports indicate search teams may have already located debris from the airplane. A spokesman for the Greek army told the French news service AFP that there have "been finds southeast of Crete, inside the Cairo flight information area."
Egyptian Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said that terrorism is a strong possibility. "The situation may point - and I say 'may' because I don't want to speculate and I don't want to go to assumptions like others - but if you analyze the situation properly, the possibility of having a different action, or having a terror attack, is higher than the possibility of having a technical [fault]," he told reporters.
Original Story
While reports are erratic and imprecise at the moment, ANN is monitoring reports that an EgyptAir Airbus A320 Flight MS804 (SU-GCC) is missing and presumed down.
The last known position reports suggest the aircraft had entered Egyptian airspace when the aircraft failed to be visible to radar with no suggestion of an emergency or other issues.
Communication with the aircraft was lost at 0245 local time, and was due into Cairo at 0315. The most recent information suggests that 66 people were on board, including 10 crew and 2 infants. The Captain is reported to have 6275 hours, including 2101 hours on the same airframe, while the First Officer is reported to have logged 2766 hours. According to the EgyptAir website, the airframe was manufactured in 2003.
While the media is already scrambling to assign some blame and are quick to mention the potential of terrorism (especially after a recent EgyptAir hijacking attempt), no details have been confirmed to suggest any potential cause for the aircraft's disappearance and the fate of the passengers and crew. The weather is reported to be clear and search and rescue assets have been deployed to the estimated search area. ANN will update this story as facts become available.
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