National carrier EgyptAir said a plane carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo went missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea.
"An official source at EgyptAir stated that Flight MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar," the airline said on its official Twitter account.
Later Tweets by EgyptAir said the plane, which was travelling at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,280 metres), disappeared at 02:45 am, 20 minutes before it was due to land at 03:05 am, after entering Egyptian airspace.
The Airbus A320 aircraft was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two infants, and 10 crew, EgyptAir said.
Earlier it said 59 passengers were aboard but then revised the figure.
The pilot had clocked up 6,275 hours of flying experience, including 2,101 hours on the A320, while the first officer had 2,766 hours, the airline said.
According to flightradar24.com, the 12-year-old plane's last known position was above the Mediterranean Sea.
Egypt's civil aviation ministry said search and rescue teams were looking for the missing jet. A ministry source also said technical information about the condition of the plane was being gathered.
The New York Times quoted Ehab Mohy el-Deen, the head of Egypt's air navigation authority, as saying that Greek air traffic controllers notified their Egyptian counterparts that they had lost contact with the plane. "They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished," he said.
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