EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo went missing above the Mediterranean. 66 people were onboard, including 30 Egyptians, 15 French and one Briton. The plane disappeared 10 miles into Egyptian airspace. Egypt officials issued contradictory statements on whether the flight crashed. A sea search is already under way for wreckage. [egyptair flight path]EgyptAir, the national airline of Egypt, said that one of its planes heading from Paris to Cairo reportedly crashed Thursday morning, local time. Egypt's civil aviation ministry said in a statement that it was too early to confirm that the plane had crashed although earlier reports had quoted the civil aviation ministry as confirming the information, Reuters reports. Aviation officials have said that the plane most likely crashed, but that search teams have yet to find any wreckage to confirm this. A Greek airport source told AFP that the plane had crashed off the Greek island of Karapathos. Conflicting reports about an emergency signal are also surfacing. EgyptAir said that the plane had sent an emergency signal, according to RTL France, and that the signals were reportedly picked up less than 10 minutes before the plane vanished from the screens. Those signals can be sent automatically and activated on impact, Sky News reports. But, the spokesman of the Egyptian army said in a statement posted on the army's official Facebook page that the army had not received any distress call from the missing plane, according to the Associated Press. [EgyptAir A320]Google Maps/SkitchA Greek defense ministry source told Reuters that authorities were also investigating an account from the captain of a merchant ship who reported a "flame in the sky" close to the plane's projected flight path. Flight MS804 lost contact with radar at 2:45 a.m. on Thursday, Cairo time (8:45 p.m. EST Wednesday), the airline announced. The flight took off from Paris' Charles De Gaulle Airport and was scheduled to land at Cairo Airport at 3:05 a.m. According to the airline, the Airbus A320 carrying 66 passengers had apparently reached an elevation of 37,000 feet around the moment it disappeared from radar. Ehab Mohy el-Deen, the head of Egypt's air navigation authority, was quoted in the New York Times as saying that Greek air traffic controllers had told their Egyptian counterparts they had lost contact with the plane. He said: "They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished." EgyptAir released the nationalities of the passengers on board: 30 Egyptian, 15 French, two Iraqi, one British, one Belgian, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Canadian. In an interview on CNN, EgyptAir vice chairman Ahmed Adel said there were 53 adults and three children on board, plus 10 crew members consisting of three security members, five cabin crew, and the pilot and co-pilot. Adel said search-and-rescue teams are headed to an area about 30 miles north of the Egyptian coast — the location where the jet is believed to have disappeared. "There was nothing unusual. It was a routine flight," Adel said. France's transport chief said there were three Egyptian security officers on board of the flight, which he said is the "the usual practice." Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism. "Search operations are ongoing at this time for the airplane in the area where it is believed to have lost contact," Ismail said, according to Reuters. "We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything. All the search operations must be concluded so we can know the cause." He said there was no "distress call" but there was a "signal" received from the plane. The plane's last known position was above the Mediterranean Sea, according to FlightRadar24. Weather conditions in the area were "clear and calm," CNN meteorologist Michael Guy noted. Airbus tweeted "We are aware of media reports" concerning the EgyptAir flight, but said it had no further details. The Guardian reported that the French government will hold an emergency meeting at around 7:30 a.m. UK time (8:30 a.m CET) to discuss the plane’s disappearance. President François Hollande spoke to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, according to the Guardian. The two countries would be cooperating to establish the circumstances of the plane’s disappearance. [People wait outside the international arrivals terminal at Cairo Airport, Egypt May 19, 2016.]Google Maps/SkitchFrench Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on RTL that France was ready to join the search operation if Egyptian authorities request it and that a crisis center to support the families of those who disappeared on the flight had been opened at Charles de Gaulle Airport. EgyptAir has set up phone numbers for relatives of Flight 804 passengers to receive updates (080077770000 from any landline in Egypt and +202 25989320 from any mobile phone or from outside Egypt). French authorities have also set up a phone number (+ 33 1 48 64 59 59). Flights over Egypt have encountered trouble on several occasions in recent history, prompting aviation authorities to instruct pilots to fly over 26,000 feet in the region. In October, a Russian airliner crashed in northern Egypt, killing all 224 people on board. In March this year, an EgyptAir flight was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus, prompting an hours-long standoff. No one was harmed in that incident. The last fatal EgyptAir crash happened in 2002 when a Boeing 737 went down near Tunis-Carthage International Airport, killing 14. Bloomberg tweeted some useful information about the Airbus A320 line of aircraft: Tweet Embed: https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/733179527250214912 #EgyptAir's missing flight #MS804 is an A320. Here are some basics about the plane type https://t.co/BY4hpkWJ5Z pic.twitter.com/OMqAJolmpw _THIS STORY IS DEVELOPING, CLICK HERE FOR LATEST UPDATES._
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