French President confirms crash of EgyptAir Airbus A320, flight MS804

French President François Hollande has confirmed that EgyptAir Airbus A320, Flight MS804, en route from Paris Charles de Gaulle France to Cairo carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew: two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three security personnel with two babies and one child on board has crashed.

President Holland confirmed that the plane crashed and that terrorism could not be ruled out, and neither could technical problems, as one cannot tell at this point.

“It was feared that this plane had crashed. The information that we have managed to gather confirms alas that this plane has crashed, and it has disappeared. 66 passengers were on board, including the crew and security personnel. Among the passengers there were 15 French citizens.

“Alongside the Egyptian authorities, we are making sure that all the families should be informed during this test. Our thoughts and solidarity and compassion are with them.

“We have a duty to know everything about the causes of what happened. No hypothesis should be ruled out. Everything should be put at the disposal of the Greek and Egyptian authorities so that we can liaise with them. We have to send them ships and planes to find where the plane crashed, and to do whatever we can to collect the debris. That will allow us to find the truth.

“It could be a terrorist hypothesis, but at this stage we should express our solidarity to the families and to find out the cause of the catastrophe. We will find the truth,” President Holland said.

However, Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s minister of civil aviation, said the plane should be regarded as “missing” until debris was found. Search is focused near the Greek island of Karpathos.

Fathy said a terror attack or technical problems could not be ruled out. The airline in its statement said the plane’s emergency devices – possibly an emergency locator transmitter or beacon – sent a signal that was received at 4.26am local time, two hours after the last radar contact.

The airline also said contact was lost around 16km/10 miles inside Egyptian airspace at 2.30am local time (00.30 GMT) amid growing fears that the plane came down in the Mediterranean. Airbus issued a statement regretting the loss of the aircraft.

According to information online, Greek aviation source told AFP that the plane crashed 130 miles from the Greek island of Karpathos also that Egypt has launched a search operation and at least eight merchant ships and French Greek aircraft have joined the search.

There is no detail yet on possible reasons for the plane’s disappearance. Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism.

Among the passengers were 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada. Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, confirmed that a British passport holder was on board the plane.