EgyptAir flight 804 disappears en route from Paris to Cairo with over 60 on board

An EgyptAir flight carrying at least 59 passengers and 10 crew members went off the radar after departing from Paris and heading to Cairo, the airline said in a brief statement.

“An informed source at EGYPTAIR stated that Flight No. MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar,” the airline said on its Twitter.

Flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 pm on Wednesday Paris time and was expected to arrive in Cairo by 3 am on Thursday. A direct flight usually takes just over four hours.

EgyptAir tweeted out that the flight disappeared from radar at 2:45 am Cairo time, when the plane was at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,300 meters) and around 10 miles (16 kilometers) inside Egyptian airspace.

Conflicting reports have emerged as to the number of people on board. Ahmed Abdel, Egypt Air’s vice-chairman said in an interview with CNN that there were 56 passengers, 3 security personnel, 2 cockpit crew members, and 5 cabin crew members on board – 66 people in total – contradicting previous claims.

He also stated no distress signal had been sent from the missing plane.

EgyptAir confirmed that all authorities have been informed of the missing plane, which disappeared near Greece. Rescue efforts are underway.

Egyptian rescue teams are reportedly working with their Greek counterparts to locate the plane.

Egypt’s minister of civil aviation, Sherif Fathi, has abruptly ended a visit to Saudi Arabia and is returning to Egypt, RIA Novosti reported.

Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian civil aviation authority, told SkyNews Arabia that the plane had likely fallen into the Mediterranean Sea.

Lebanese channel Al-Mayadin tweeted that sources in EgyptAir confirm the aircraft crashed into the sea.

EgyptAir said the captain of the plane is experienced with over 6,000 flying hours, while the co-captain has over 2,000 hours.