Greek and Egyptian crews are searching for a missing Egypt Air flight that disappeared Thursday en route to Cairo from Paris with 66 passengers and crew on board.
The carrier said that it lost contact with Flight MS804 at 2:30am Cairo time, when the Airbus A320 was at an altitude of about 11,278 meters and approximately 16 kilometers inside Egyptian airspace. The cause of the plane's disappearance was not immediately clear, but airline officials said the aircraft may have crashed.
The airline stated that Egyptian armed forces received a distress message before communication with the plane was lost; however, a military spokesman posted on his Facebook page a statement denying a distress call had been received.
Fifty-six passengers were on board, including one child and two infants. Saudi officials say the flight included passengers from France, Britain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada. No U.S. citizens were reported among the missing.
Aviation experts are reiterating that at this point too little is known to draw any conclusions.