.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 a terror attack'
By WILLS ROBINSON FOR BE INFORMED
PUBLISHED: 03:12 GMT, 19 May 2016 | UPDATED: 15:25 GMT, 19
May 2016
These images claim to show debris from the doomed EgyptAir
plane that crashed into the Mediterranean with 66 people on board in what
experts claim was almost certainly a terrorist attack.
The pictures emerged as search vessels reported seeing
plastics object and lifejackets floating in the sea around 230 miles south of
the Greek islands of Crete and Karpathos.
Flight MS804 was travelling from Paris to Cairo when it
vanished from radar ten miles into Egyptian airspace at 00.30am GMT without
making a distress call.
Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos said the Airbus A320
made 'sudden swerves' in mid-air, lurching 90 degrees to the left then 360
degrees to the right. It then dropped from 37,000 feet to 15,000ft before the
signal was lost at around 10,000 feet.
The revelation came as security experts, ministers and
former air accident investigators said all the evidence currently pointed to
the plane being targeted in a terrorist attack.
The 56 passengers on board included 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
members including three security guards.
The British national is believed to be a man in his 40s from
Carmarthen in south Wales.
 |
Wreckage of MS804? This image posted online purportedly
shows a piece of debris from the doomed EgyptAir plane that crashed into the
Mediterranean with 66 people on board, although MailOnline has been unable to
independently verify the pictures
|
The images of the debris were posted on pprune, an internet
forum for professional pilots, by a user who said he was sent them by the
captain of the Egyptian container vessel, Maersk Ahram. MailOnline has been
unable to independently verify the claims.
A Greek frigate also reported spotting two large plastic
objects floating in the sea 230 miles south of the island of Crete.
They appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red and
spotted close to an area where an emergency transponder signal had been
emitted.
Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi also said the
possibility of a terror attack was a 'stronger' possibility than technical
failure.
The head of Russia's top domestic security agency, Alexander
Bortnikov, also claimed it was 'in all likelihood it was a terror attack'
Meanwhile, Jean-Paul Troadec, the former chief of the BEA
national investigation unit, said the lack of a live emergency alert meant it
was almost certainly destroyed in a terror attack.
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.'
Their comments came after a merchant ship captain reported
seeing a 'flame in the sky' over the Mediterranean.
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.
French President Francois Hollande said nothing had been
ruled out about the cause of the crash.
 |
A woman holds her head in her hand as she waits for more
news outside the Egyptair in-flight service building at Cairo International
Airport
|
 |
A Greek frigate found two large plastic objects floating in
the sea about 230 miles south of the island of Crete, Greek defence sources
said
|
 |
Shock: A woman reacts as she waits outside the Egyptair
in-flight service building where relatives and friends of passengers who were
flying in an EgyptAir plane that vanished from radar en route from Paris to
Cairo are being held,at Cairo International Airport
|
 |
Relatives and friends of passengers who were flying in an
EgyptAir plane leave the Egyptair in-flight service building at Cairo Airport
|
 |
Relatives gather at Cairo Airport. Among the 56 passengers
on board the plane were 30 Egyptian nationals, 15 French, two Iraqis, one
Briton, Belgian, Kuwaiti, Saudi, Sudanese, Chadian, Portuguese, Algerian and a
Canadian
|
Egyptian military aircraft and navy ships were taking part
in a search operation off Egypt's Mediterranean coast to locate the debris of
the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two
babies, and 10 crew members.
Greece also joined the search and rescue operation,
officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault offered to send military
planes and boats to join the Egyptian search for wreckage.
'We are at the disposition of the Egyptian authorities with
our military capacities, with our planes, our boats to help in the search for
this plane,' he said.
He spoke after French President Francois Hollande held an
emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace.
Later, the French military said a Falcon surveillance jet
monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants had been diverted to help search for
the EgyptAir plane.
Military spokesman Colonel Gilles Jaron said the jet is
joining the Egypt-led search effort and the French navy may send another plane
and a ship to the zone.
Mr 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.
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.
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.
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.
 |
Patrick Calvar (pictured), the head of French internal
intelligence, warned last week that ISIS was planning new attacks on France
|
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Hunt for MS804: Several vessels are seen on radar joining
the search for the doomed Airbus A320 in the Mediterranean
|
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