According to Egypt’s military and Greek Defence Minister, Panos Kammenos, the first debris of EgyptAir flight MS804, which disappeared off the Greek island of Karpathos in the early hours of 19 May have been found.
The EgyptAir Airbus A320 with 66 people (including 10 crew members) on board took off from Paris CDG at 11:09 pm on 18 May with an ETA of around 03:00 am the next morning, but suddenly disappeared from radar screens at 02:45 am according to the Egyptian airline, whilst the aircraft was preparing to land at Cairo.
A maritime search and rescue operation has begun, and in addition, according to EgyptAir, the plane disappeared from radar screens during its approach over the Mediterranean at 37,000 feet (11,300 metres). The flight path indicating loss of contact with the plane can be clearly seen in the picture taken from Flightradar24’s site.
An international phone number has been made available to the passengers’ families: +202 25 989 320.
On 29 March, another EgyptAir flight, carrying 62 people, was diverted to Cyprus. The hijacker, a psychologically unstable man, surrendered after several hours.
The first thing that enters one’s mind concerning EgyptAir’s flight MS804 disappearance is that the cause was an act of terrorism - even though, for the moment, no evidence exists to substantiate this hypothesis. The pilots gave no warning or alert before the flight’s disappearance. One is, however, reminded of the inflight explosion of a Metrojet airliner, carrying 224 people, above the Sinai in Egypt, on 31 October 2015; for which the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
