Blizzard warnings in Northwest Minnesota, winter weather advisories across the state

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

EgyptAir's Flight MS 804 disappeared during a flight from Paris to Cairo early Thursday morning with 66 people onboard.

At one point it was reported that debris from the plane was found near the island of Karpathos. That finding has been retracted by EgyptAir Vice Chairman Ahmed Adel. "We stand corrected," he 

The Associated Press reports that "as night fell, the searchers had yet to find any confirmed debris."

The cause of the incident has not yet been determined.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi released a statement saying the country will continue to search for debris and investigate the cause of the disappearance. The statement read, in part:


https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/733167077255712768

"Officials have been trying to avoid speculating about what happened," NPR's Peter Kenyon reports. "Nothing has been ruled out as far as the cause."

The Paris prosecutor's office announced it has opened an investigation into the flight's disappearance, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.

Egypt, Greece, France, England, Cyprus and Italy all worked to search for the plane after it disappeared from radar, according to Egypt's military spokesman. A U.S. Navy patrol aircraft has also joined the search, the Navy says.

Egyptian authorities say search teams are continuing to work.

Earlier in the day, families of the victims had been gathering at the Cairo airport to await news of their loved ones, NPR's Emily Harris reports.

"My Egyptian colleague here spoke to one woman very briefly this morning who was coming out of an EgyptAir office with no information, talking about her daughter and wiping away tears," Emily told 

Egypt's civil aviation minister emphasized how little was known about the cause of the plane's disappearance in a press conference on Thursday.

"All we know is that a plane disappeared. We're not ruling out any hypothesis," Sherif Fathy said. He said a terror attack seems like a higher possibility than a technical issue, but that both were being considered as potential explanations.

Greece's civil aviation department head Kostas Litserakis said air traffic controllers spoke to the pilot of MS 804 over the island of Kea, in what is believed to have been the last communication with the plane.

"The pilot did not mention any problems," Litserakis said, according to Reuters.

Radar contact with the plane was lost shortly after it transitioned from Greek airspace into Egyptian airspace, the Greek authorities say.

The missing plane is an Airbus A320. NPR's Russell Lewis tells our Newscast unit that the model has a very good safety record.

Egypt's National Security Council met to discuss the disappearance.

and made to fly to Cyprus by a man who was later described as "psychologically unstable." He remains in custody in Cyprus.

About Thursday's missing plane, The Associated Press reports:

Disasters

Doreen McCallister

Author

EgyptAir says there were 66 people aboard Flight MS 804 when it disappeared from radar in the early hours of the morning. There are conflicting reports about the discovery of debris from the plane.

Search continues for EgyptAir flight that went missing over Mediterranean Sea

Go Deeper.

Like this?