What We Know About Missing EgyptAir Flight 804
Details about how the flight vanished are limited at this time.
— -- Hours after EgyptAir Flight 804 was supposed to land in Cairo, there is limited information about the flight and how it disappeared. Here’s what we do know:
The Plane and Its Passengers
EgyptAir Flight 804 was an Airbus A320, commonly regarded as a workhorse of the skies because of its reputation of safety and the frequency with which it's used by commercial airlines.
When the plane left Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 p.m. local time Wednesday, it was on its fifth and final flight of the day, carrying 66 people, 56 of whom were passengers. Two infants and an older child were among the passengers.
The majority of passengers came from the ports of departure and arrival: France and Egypt. The other passengers hailed from Algeria, Belgium, Canada, Chad, Kuwait, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
No Americans were on board the flight, officials said.
The Flight Path
The flight crossed into Egyptian airspace just before losing contact with the radar tracking system at 2:45 a.m., half an hour before it was due to land in Cairo. At that time, the plane was flying at 37,000 feet, under its certified maximum of 39,000 feet.
The EgyptAir pilot made a 90-degree turn to the left, followed by what one official described as a "360-degree maneuver" while losing about 20,000 feet in altitude. While descending, radio contact with the flight was lost.
The Cause
About four hours after news of the missing plane was reported, EgyptAir tweeted that military search and rescue received a distress call from the airplane's emergency equipment.
The Egyptian aviation minister this morning said the cause of the flight's disappearance was more likely terrorism than a technical failure.
"I don't want to go to assumptions like others, but if you analyze the situation properly, the possibility ... of having a terror attack is higher than having a technical' failure, the official told reporters.