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Search underway for missing Airbus A320 which was 16km inside Egyptian airspace when contact was lost
An EgyptAir plane missing with 66 people on board probably crashed into the sea, officials from the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation said today.
The Airbus A320 aircraft flying from Paris to Cairo went missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea.
Egypt’s state newspaper Ahram reported that there had been no distress call from the plane and that the last contact with the pilot was about 10 minutes before the aircraft disappeared.
Earlier, Tweets by EgyptAir said the plane – which was travelling at an altitude of 11,280 metres – disappeared soon after entering Egyptian airspace.
Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said search and rescue teams were looking for the missing jet. A ministry source also said technical information about the condition of the plane was being gathered.
An EgyptAir aircraft parked on the tarmac at Cairo Airport in March. File photo: EPA
According to flightradar24.com, the plane was an Airbus A320 and its last known position was above the Mediterranean Sea.
An Airbus A321 operated by Russia’s Metrojet crashed in the Sinai in October 31, 2015, killing all 224 people on board. Russia and Western governments have said the plane was likely brought down by a bomb, and the Islamic State militant group said it had smuggled an explosive on board.
Reuters reported in January that an EgyptAir mechanic, whose cousin joined Islamic State in Syria, is suspected of planting the bomb, according to sources familiar with the matter.
In March, an EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus by a man with what authorities said was a fake suicide belt. He was arrested after giving himself up.
The disappearance of the jet on Thursday comes more than two years after the start of one of the most enduring mysteries in aviation history.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew onboard, mostly Chinese and Malaysians.
Authorities believe the Boeing 777 detoured to the remote southern Indian Ocean and then plunged into the water.
The costly, painstaking search for a crash site has yet to yield results, but five pieces of debris have been identified as either definitely or probably from the jet, all found thousands of kilometres (miles) from the search zone, likely swept there by ocean currents.
Theories to explain the disappearance include a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.
(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)
