Families Wait for Information About Passengers On Board Missing EgyptAir Flight
There were 56 passengers on board the plane when it left Paris.
— -- After an EgyptAir plane went missing over the Mediterranean Sea last night, the families of the 56 passengers and 10 crew members who were on board are anxiously awaiting answers. The flight is feared to have crashed, based on early reports of found debris.
The first EgyptAir flight to leave from Paris since the missing EgyptAir Flight 804 is believed to have left for Cairo and was carrying family members of the missing, according to The Associated Press.
Egyptian authorities are leading search and rescue efforts, joined by the Turks, Americans, French and Greeks with whom they are sharing intelligence, ABC News has learned.
A spokesman for the Greek General Staff told ABC News that rescue teams are battling bad weather, including strong currents, waves and wind, but say the search, as of now, is planned to continue after dark.
French President Francois Hollande said that "no hypothesis is ruled out."
"At this stage, our priority is to show solidarity and support to the families," he said.
There were 12 nationalities represented among the passengers, the most Egyptian with 30 passengers, followed by 15 French nationals, two Iraqis and one person each from the U.K, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, Chad and Portugal.
No details have been given about the identities of the crew members, except that seven of the 10 were AirEgypt staff and the remaining three were security personnel who were on board that flight.
EgyptAir said on Twitter that the pilot had 6,275 of flying hours, including 2,101 flying hours on the Airbus 320. The co-pilot had 2,766 flying hours.
John Nance, a former Air Force pilot and ABC News aviation consultant, said that "they're decent figures."
"It just tells you that you have reasonably qualified people," Nance said.
At a press conference at NATO headquarters, Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. is providing assistance in the search effort for the missing EgyptAir flight 804. Kerry wouldn’t be drawn on the cause of the plane’s disappearance, saying “I have no more knowledge than others, but we extend condolences to each and every country that has lost people. Particularly to Egypt.”
ABC News' Dada Jovanovic and Jon Williams contributed to this report.
Related Stories
ABC News Live