Be Informed: EgyptAir jet crash was 'almost certainly a terror attack' says air accident chief after flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people including one Briton vanishes over the Mediterranean

.EgyptAir flight MS804 vanished over the Med at 00.30am GMT after leaving Paris at 9.09pm GMT on Wednesday

.Airline said contact was lost with plane 10 miles into Egyptian air space about 40 minutes before it was due to land

.Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000ft and did not make a distress call before it disappeared off radar, officials say

.There were 56 passengers on board including one Briton, 30 Egyptians, 15 French and one Canadian and 10 crew

.Major search operation underway as former air crash investigation chief says it is 'very probably an attack'

By WILLS ROBINSON FOR BE INFORMD MAIL and STEPHANIE LINNING and SIMON TOMLINSON FOR BE INFORMED ONLINE

PUBLISHED: 03:12 GMT, 19 May 2016 | UPDATED: 09:57 GMT, 19 May 2016

An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea with 66 people on board was very likely brought down by a terror attack, experts said today.

The Airbus A320 left the French capital's Charles De Gaulle Airport at 9.09pm GMT last night before coming down off the Greek island of Karpathos ten miles into Egyptian airspace at around 00.30am. Officials said there was no distress call.

There were 56 passengers on board including one Briton, 30 Egyptians, 15 French, one Belgian, one Iraqi, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi Arabian, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and one Canadian. There were 10 crew on flight MS804 including three security guards.

Jean-Paul Troadec, the former chief of the BEA national investigation unit, said the lack of a live emergency alert suggested a 'brutal event'.

He told Europe 1 radio station in Paris: 'A technical problem, a fire or a failed motor do not cause an instant accident and the team has time to react.

'The team said nothing, they did not react, so it was very probably a brutal event and we can certainly think about an attack.'

His comments came after a captain on board a merchant ship reported seeing a 'flame in the sky' over the Mediterranean.

Vanished: EgyptAir flight MS804 heading from Paris to Cairo is believed to have crashed into the sea after disappearing from radar. There were 66 people on board the Airbus A320 (pictured) that vanished 40 minutes before it was set to land in Egypt early Thursday morning

Relatives of passengers on the missing EgyptAir flight break down as they console each other at Cairo International Airport in Egypt

Despair: An Egyptian woman whose brother was on board the jet reacts as she leaves the EgyptAir service building at Cairo Airport

Grief: Relatives of missing EgyptAir passengers comfort each other in front of the airliner's office at Cairo International Airport

Relatives and friends of passengers flying on the EgyptAir react as they wait outside the Egyptair in-flight service building at Cairo Airport

Agony: A woman reacts as she waits outside the Egyptair service building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport

A radar map shows the plane's path travelling from Paris and then stopping in the Mediterranean Sea before reaching Cairo, where it lost contact with air traffic control

France called a crisis meeting of top ministers as Prime Minister Manuel Valls said 'no theory can be ruled out' to explain the plane's disappearance.

ISIS has been waging a deadly insurgency against Egyptian security forces and last October claimed the bombing of a Russian airliner flying home holidaymakers from the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh which killed all 224 people on board.

The flight was the aircraft's fifth of the day, having also flown to the Eritrean capital of Asmara, the Tunisian capital Tunis and Brussels in Belgium.

Devastated relatives wept and comforted each other as they gathered at Charles De Gaulle and Cairo Airports waiting for news of their loved ones.

The British Foreign Office said it was in contact with the family of a British national feared dead.

EgyptAir first reported on the disappearance of the flight, tweeting: 'An informed source at EGYPTAIR stated that Flight no MS804,which departed Paris at 9.09pm (GMT), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar.'

The director of Greece's Civil Aviation Authority says air traffic controllers were in contact with the pilot of the EgyptAir flight as it passed through Greek airspace.

Konstantinos Lintzerakos said the plane was at 37,000 feet, travelling at 519 mph, and did not report any problems.

Lyzerakos told private Antenna television that controllers tried to make contact with the pilot 10 miles before the flight exited the Greek Flight Information Range (FIR), but the pilot did not respond.

Lyzerakos said controllers continued trying to contact the pilot until 3.39am Greek time (00.39am GMT) when the plane disappeared from the radar, around 10 miles into Egyptian airspace.

EgyptAir said the plane sent an emergency signal, possibly from an emergency beacon attached to the plane, at 1.26am (GMT) two hours after it vanished

.In water crashes, an underwater beacon attached to the aircraft's flight recorders starts to emit a signal or ping which helps search and rescue teams to locate the crash and find the black boxes.

'We cannot rule anything out': Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail talks to reporters at Cairo International Airport. He said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash

On high alert: A French officer of the Police aux Frontieres (Borders Police) stands guard at Charles de Gaulle airport

Police take up position at Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle airport, after the EgyptAir flight vanished from radar

The EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle was empty first thing this morning after reports of the plane's disappearance began to surface

Egyptian aviation officials later confirmed the jet had crashed, saying the search was now underway for debris.

Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian civil aviation authority, told SkyNews Arabia that the plane most likely crashed into the sea.

A French security source told the Telegraph: 'We cannot rule out the possibility of a terrorist attack.'

The French government says President Francois Hollande has spoken with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi by telephone and they agreed to 'closely cooperate to establish the circumstances' in which the EgyptAir flight disappeared.

The government statement cited Hollande as saying he shares the anxiety of families.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France is ready to join the search operation if Egyptian authorities request it.

Speaking on RTL radio, he said the Paris airport authority has opened a crisis centre to support the families coming to Charles de Gaulle Airport. He said 'no theory can be ruled out'.

Search and rescue teams have been sent to a specific location believed to be 40 miles from the Egyptian coast.

Search and rescue teams, including members from Egyptian Armed Forces, are on site, according to EgyptAir.

Greece has also joined the search and rescue operation.

Two aircraft, one C-130 and one early warning aircraft have been dispatched, officials at the Hellenic national defence general staff said.

They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.

Ahmed Abdel, the vice-chairman of EgyptAir holding company, said no distress signal had been sent, as far as he knew.

BREAKDOWN OF PEOPLE ON BOARD

56 passengers (including two infants and a child)

3 security personnel

2 cockpit crew

5 cabin crew crew

Passenger nationalities:

30 Egyptians

15 French

1 British

1 Belgian

1 Iraqi

1 Kuwaiti

1 Saudi Arabian

1 Chadian

1 Portuguese

1 Algerian

1 Canadian

A closer locator map shows where the flight lost contact with radars around 170 miles from the the Egyptian coast

He added that there had been no reported problems with the plane when it left Paris.

The captain of the plane, Abdel said, had more than 6,000 flying hours. This includes 2,000 on an A320.

He also said there was no special cargo on board and the airline was not informed about any dangerous objects on board.

As the plane was in Egyptian airspace, their air traffic controllers should have been in contact with the flight team.

However, it does not necessarily mean the plane was over land at the time, as Egyptian air space stretches over the Mediterranean Sea.

According to flight schedules, it was the plane's fifth flight of the day.

Shortly after news of the disappearance broke, the Egyptair website crashed.

The Airbus A320 is a short-to-mid range aircraft and is one of the most commonly used in the world that first entered circulation in 1986.

It has a capacity of 150 passengers and a range of more than 3,000 miles.

An EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus in March. A man who admitted to the hijacking and is described by Cypriot authorities as 'psychologically unstable' is in custody in Cyprus.

The incident renewed security concerns months after a Russian passenger plane was blown out of the sky over the Sinai Peninsula.

The Russian plane crashed in Sinai on October 31, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the extremist Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for planting it.

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 1990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard.

U.S. investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downward.

But Egyptian officials rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting some mechanical reason caused the crash.

Hunt for MS804: Several vessels are seen on radar joining the search for the doomed Airbus A320 in the Mediterranean

The airline then tweeted that there were 56 passengers on board and 10 crew members

The airline revealed that the flight had gone missing after posting this Tweet early on Thursday morning

They then confirmed that the flight lost contact with air traffic controllers 10 miles inside Egyptian airspace

HIJACKINGS, PILOT 'SUICIDES' AND MOUNTAIN CRASHES: EGYPTAIR'S LONG HISTORY OF AVIATION DISASTERS

March 19, 1972: Flight 763 Cairo to Aden

The EgyptAir plane crashed into the Shamsan Mountains on approach to Aden International Airport, killing all 30 people on board.

August 23, 1976: Flight 321 Cairo to Luxor

Three armed terrorists hijacked the flight with 95 passengers and six crew on board as it neared Luxor airport in southern Egypt.

The men, claiming to be from the Abd Al-Nasir movement, demanded to be flown to Tripoli in Libya but the Boeing 737 landed at Luxor after they were told it needed to refuel.

Once there, the hijackers demanded the release of five Libyan prisoners from a Cairo jail who had been detained for plotting assassination attempts on dissident Libyan and Yemeni political leaders.

But army officers successfully stormed the plane and the hijackers were arrested. No-one was harmed in the incident.

December 25, 1976: Flight 864 Cairo to Bangkok

The Boeing 707 flying from Cairo to Don Mueang International Airport crashed in an industrial complex in Bangkok, killing all 52 people on board and 19 on the ground. Pilot error was blamed for the crash.

October 17, 1982: Flight 771 Cairo to Geneva

On approaching Geneva, the plane, carrying 182 people, landed 50m before the runway and bounced before sliding off the left side.

It turned 270 degrees and continued to slide backwards before coming to a rest with its right wing ripped off. No-one was killed.

November 23, 1985: Flight 648 Athens to Cairo

Three Palestinian members of terrorist organisation Abu Nidal hijacked the Boeing 737 with 89 passengers and six crew shortly after its 8pm takeoff from Athens.

A security guard on the plane shot and killed one of the terrorists before he was killed and two flight attendants were wounded.

The hijackers demanded to be flown to Libya but the plane had to land at Malta to refuel.

The two wounded crew members and 11 passengers were released at Malta airport.

However, the hijackers threatened to kill a passenger every 10 minutes when Maltese authorities refused to refuel the plane unless everyone on board was released.

A stand-off commenced and two U.S. passengers were executed. Egyptian forces eventually stormed the plane and 56 more passengers were killed, leading to a total of 60 dead, including two hijackers. Thirty eight people survived, including one hijacker.

October 22, 1993: Flight 767 Cairo to Sana'a

A man carrying a knife hijacked the plane and demanded to be taken to Aden in Yemen. He was arrested after the plane landed in Sana'a, Yemen.

March 27, 1996: Flight 104 Luxor to Cairo

An Egyptian man and his teenage son hijacked the Airbus A320 shortly after it departed from Luxor in southern Egypt.

They claimed to have explosives and wanted to meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to deliver him a 'message from God'. The plane was diverted and landed at Derna-Martuba in Libya where the hijackers surrendered to authorities.

October 19, 1999: Flight 838 Istanbul to Cairo

A male passenger threatened the crew with a knife and demanded that the Boeing 737 be diverted to London or Germany.

The hijacker was successful, with the plane landing at Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport. However once there, all passengers were released and German police arrested the hijacker.

October 31, 1999: Flight 990 Los Angeles to Cairo

A Boeing 767 carrying 217 on board crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 100km south of Natucket Island, Massachusetts. The official probable cause of the crash was suicide by the co-pilot.

May 11, 2000: Flight 233 Cairo to Aswan

A male passenger on the Airbus A321 claimed a jar of hair gel was a bomb and told the chief flight attendant that he wanted to go to Afghanistan to find work.

He then tried to storm the cockpit but was overpowered by crew members before gaining entry. The plane, with 19 passengers on board, landed safely in Aswan in southern Egypt. The offender was charged with air piracy and threatening the lives of passengers.

May 7, 2002: Flight 843 Cairo to Tunis

The Boeing 737 with 62 people on board crashed into a hill near the Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunisia during poor weather conditions.

Eleven passengers and three crew members died. The investigation found the minimum safe altitude warning device at the airport did not cover the relevant runway.

Oct 21, 2009: Flight 738 Istanbul to Cairo

A Sudanese passenger on the Boeing 737 was armed with a knife and held-up a flight attendant minutes after take-off. He demanded the flight be diverted to Jerusalem so that he could 'liberate it'. The man, who was intoxicated, was overpowered by two air marshals.

July 29, 2011: Flight 667 Cairo to Saudi Arabia

The Boeing 777 with 317 people on board had a fire in the cockpit while still on the ground at Cairo Airport. Seven people were injured, no-one was killed. The plane was written off.

March 29, 2016: Flight 181 Alexandria to Cairo

Egyptian man Seif Eldin Mustafa hijacked the Airbus A320 after it left Alexandria in northern Egypt and forced it to divert to Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.

Once landed, Mustafa - who was wearing a fake suicide belt - took several passengers and crew hostage and demanded to see his Cypriot ex-wife.

However shortly after, he released most passengers and crew before surrendering about seven hours later.