EgyptAir plane crashes over Mediterranean

By FRANK 

An EgyptAir plane with 66 people aboard crashed during a flight from Paris to Cairo early Thursday, according to reports.

French President François Hollande confirmed that the passenger plane carrying 66 people crashed over the Mediterranean Sea, but did not comment on what caused the disaster.

No hypothesis is being ruled out, he said.

An Egypt Air plane en route from Paris to Cairo has gone missing over the Mediterranean Sea. Above, a passenger's relative at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris.

(MICHEL EULER/AP)

Meanwhile, Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said that it was too early to speculate about mechanical problems or terrorism, and that nothing could be ruled out immediately.

The airline said Flight MS804 had disappeared from radar after taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was over water, about 175 miles off the African coast, and had just entered Egyptian airspace when it went missing.

Sixty-six people including crew were aboard the flight that vanished early Thursday morning.

(REUTERS)

The plane — with 10 crew and 56 passengers on board, including two babies and a child — was scheduled to touch down in Cairo shortly before 3 a.m. local time.

As of 11:30 a.m. in Cairo, the Egyptian military was still searching for the 2003 model Airbus A320 with assistance from Greece and a French surveillance jet that was already in the region.

Above, relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir flight grieve at Cairo International Airport.

(AMR NABIL/AP)

Hellenic National Defense General Staff spokesman Vasilios Beletsiotis told the Daily News that two planes, two helicopters and a frigate had been sent to an area south-southeast of the island of Karpathios.

An Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman said that no distress message had been received from the plane, prompting speculation about what sudden events could take it off course

Egyptian officials have not yet found a reason for the disappearance. Above, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail talks to reporters.

(SELMAN ELOTEFY/AP)

Thirty Egyptians, 15 French and two Iraqis were on the plane, in addition to one person each from Algeria, Belgium, Canada, Chad, Great Britain, Kuwait, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

The disappearance comes roughly two months after a man from the Middle Eastern country made international headlines for hijacking an EgyptAir planeby saying he was wearing a suicide vest.

The disappearance of the current plane (pictured flying near Zaventem airport in Brussels in 2015) follows the hijacking of an EgyptAir jet in March.

(KEVIN CLEYNHENS/AP)

Seif Eldin Mustafa, 58, said he made the vessel land in Cyprus, in an attempt to see his ex-wife on the island.

No one was injured in that incident, and Mustafa is facing extradition back to Egypt.

In late October, 224 people were killed aboard a Russian plane leaving the country's Sinai Peninsula. Most of those who died were tourists.

Islamic State militants later claimed responsibility and said it brought the flight down with a bomb