An EgyptAir plane travelling from Paris to Cairo has crashed with 66 people on board.
The plane disappeared from radar in the early hours of this morning 10 miles into Egyptian airspace.
Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said the plane put out a distress signal at 1.26am (BST), three and a half hours into its flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. It later confirmed the plane had crashed.
The Egyptian armed forces were preparing for an inspection and rescue effort and the Greek authorities also joined the search effort.
The plane had one Briton on board along with people from Egypt, France, Belgium, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, and Canada.
Flight MS804 left Charles De Gaulle Airport at 10.10pm yesterday.
The airline initially said said there were 59 passengers on board but later said there were 56, including one child and two babies.
Three EgyptAir security personnel were on board as well as seven cabin crew members.
The airline’s official Twitter account posted a message saying: ‘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 tweeted that the plane lost contact with radar at 2.45am Cairo time. Cairo International Airport’s website listed the flight’s scheduled arrival time as 3.05am.
The Airbus A320 was built in 2003 and was flying at 37,000 feet, the airline said on Twitter.
The airline tweeted: ‘EGYPTAIR has contacted the concerned authorities and bodies and inspection is underway through the rescue teams.’
It tweeted that the pilot had logged 6275 flying hours, including 2101 hours on the A320, and the co-pilot had logged 2766 hours.
The airline has also provided free contact numbers for families concerned for relatives. From outside of Egypt, anyone concerned should call .
Greek authorities have joined the search for the jet by deploying two aircraft, a C-130 military plane and one early warning aircraft, the Hellenic National Defence General Staff said.
It also said a frigate was heading to the area and helicopters were on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.
Airbus’ verified Twitter account said: ‘We are aware of media reports. At this time we have no further details, but we will provide further information when available.’
