CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Despite early reports to the contrary, an EgyptAir official now says debris from flight MS804 has not yet been found. USA TODAY 
 
 A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight 804 wipes her tears as she is comforted at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris on May 19, 2016. (Photo: Michel Euler, AP) 
 
 Debris found Thursday in the Mediterranean Sea was not from an EgyptAir flight that vanished from radar en route from Paris to Cairo early Thursday, an airline official said. 
 
 Ahmed Adel, EgyptAir vice chairman, told CNN Thursday that a statement he made earlier to the network was not accurate. 
 
 "We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane," Adel told the news organization. "So the search and rescue is still going on." 
 
 Adel's statement added to the mounting questions as to what happened to the Airbus 320 that was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew members, and turned global attention back to the prospect of potential terrorism. 
 
 Earlier, Greek officials disputed Egypt's claim that Greek authorities found floating wreckage, including two life vests, from an EgyptAir flight carrying 66 people that crashed into the Mediterranean early Thursday en route from Paris to Cairo. 
 
 EgyptAir said the Egyptian foreign ministry confirmed in a letter to the Cairo government that Greek searchers found the debris near the Greek island of Karpathos. But within an hour of that report, Athanassios Binis, head of Greece’s Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board, told state ERT TV that “an assessment of the finds showed that they do not belong to an aircraft.” 
 
 Binis said the determination was confirmed by Egyptian authorities, according to the Associated Press. There was no immediate response or clarification from EgyptAir. 
 
 Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said the Airbus A320 made two sharp turns then suddenly lost altitude before vanishing from radar 174 miles off the Egyptian coast. “It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360-degree turn toward the right, dropping from 38,000 to 15,000 feet and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet,” he said. 
 
 Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said the possibility of a terror attack as the cause of the crash of flight MS804 is "higher than that of a technical error,” Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported. 
 
 Adding to Thursday's confusion, unnamed officials told Reuters that the United States saw no signs of an explosion as it reviewed imagery. 
 
 French President François Hollande earlier confirmed the disappearance of the airliner but said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash. 
 
 The plane vanished shortly after entering Egyptian airspace. Greek civil aviation authorities said all appeared fine with the flight until air traffic controllers were preparing to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts. The pilot did not respond to their calls, and the aircraft then disappeared from radar. 
 
 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Egypt's aviation minister said on Thursday that a 'terror attack' was a more probable explanation for the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight than technical failure.Video provided by AFP Newslook 
 
 About 40 minutes before contact with the plane was lost, Greek air traffic controllers said the pilot was in good spirits and reported no problems as he flew over the Greek island of Kea, according to a statement by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority. 
 
 Al-Ahram identified the pilot as Captain Mohamed Shokeir. The airline said he had 6,275 hours of flying experience, including 2,101 hours on the A320 aircraft used in the flight. 
 
 The French military said a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants was diverted to help in the Egypt-led search effort for the airliner. Greece's defense ministry also mobilized a search-and-rescue operation. U.S. Commander Sixth Fleet is working to provide U.S. Navy P-3 Orion support, according to the U.S. Navy. 
 
 In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama received "multiple updates" on the missing plane from his homeland security and counterterrorism team and asked to be kept apprised of developments. 
 
 Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump weighed in on the crash, calling it "yet another terrorist attack." In a Twitter post Thursday, Trump pointed to the incident, asking "when will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!" 
 
 FBI Director James Comey told reporters during a visit to the Chicago field office that U.S. officials don't have any evidence at this point that confirms the plane was brought down in a terrorist attack. "We don't know exactly what this is yet," Comey said. 
 
 At Charles De Gaulle's Terminal 1, Paula Alina checked boarding passes Thursday afternoon, including those for EgyptAir flight MS800 bound for Cairo. Since the Paris terrorist attacks last year, Alina said, she has seen many people boarding flights in tears because they're afraid of a terror attack onboard. 
 
 "It is heartbreaking," she said. "I can barely speak. I feel tired and confused." As for those boarding the next plane to Cairo, Alina said, "I feel afraid for them." 
 
 But she said the ground staff puts on a brave face. "I don't speak to them otherwise I would show them that we are worried for them," Alina said. 
 
 In Cairo, Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, the country’s highest security body. The council includes the prime minister and the defense, foreign and interior ministers, in addition to the chiefs of the intelligence agencies. 
 
 El-Sissi and Hollande spoke on the phone and agreed to “closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances” surrounding the incident, according to a statement issued in Paris. 
 
 Sherif Ismail, Egypt's prime minister, told reporters at Cairo airport that it was also too early to draw any conclusions about what caused the plane's disappearance. “We cannot rule anything out,” he said. He also said there was no "distress call." 
 
 Aircraft manufacturer Airbus said in a statement that it "regrets to confirm the loss of an Egyptair A320, flight ‪#‎MS804‬." Airbus said EgyptAir took delivery of the plane in November 2003 and that it had accumulated approximately 48,000 flight hours. 
 
 Details on passengers emerge 
 
 EgyptAir said the passengers included: 
 
 • 30 Egyptians 
 
 • 15 French 
 
 • 2 Iraqis 
 
 • One each from Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. 
 
 No Americans were reported to be aboard the plane. 
 
 One of the victims was Egyptian-born Ahmed Helal, a plant manager at Procter & Gamble's Amiens, France, manufacturing facility, the company said. Helal spent two years in Cincinnati from 2012 to 2014 as an associate operations director for single dose unit detergents as P&G first launched Tide Pods, according to his LinkedIn profile. 
 
 Relatives of passengers aboard the missing flight arrived at Cairo airport and at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, where crisis centers were set up. The Associated Press reported that a man and a woman, identified by airport staff as relatives of the flight’s passengers, sat at an information desk near the EgyptAir counter at Charles De Gaulle. The woman sobbed, holding her face in a handkerchief. 
 
 In Cairo, family members of passengers and crew sat in the modest restaurant at the Le Passage hotel just beside Cairo Airport. Paramedics and doctors were on standby in an adjacent alcove ready to assist grief-stricken survivors. 
 
 "Only God knows what happened to them," said Mohammed Diab, an uncle of one of the air marshals on the ill-fated jet. 
 
 "All they have told us is the plane is missing," said the tearful 72-year-old, even as Egyptian TV broadcasted video of wreckage thought to be from the downed plane floating in the Mediterranean. "He had been working for EgyptAir for five years and he loved his job," Diab said of his 25-year-old nephew. 
 
 EgyptAir operates from a hub at Cairo International Airport and is based in Heliopolis, Egypt. It offers passenger and freight services to more than 75 destinations. 
 
 In March, EgyptAir Flight 181 en route to Cyprus was hijacked by a passenger claiming to be wearing a suicide belt. The hijacker surrendered at Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus and all passengers were released safely. No one was hurt in the incident, which Cypriot authorities said was not terrorism related. 
 
 A Russian passenger plane crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility. 
 
 Contributing: Jacob Wirtschafter in Cairo; Nikolia Apostolu from Lesbos, Greece; Maya Vidon in Paris; Melanie Eversley, Gregory Korte in Washington. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/27Ct7fy ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption Film director Osman Abu Laban lost four relatives in the disaster 
 
 Debris and body parts have been found in the Mediterranean Sea by teams searching for a doomed EgyptAir plane, Greek and Egyptian officials say. 
 
 Flight MS804 was en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew when it crashed early on Thursday. 
 
 Items including seats and luggage have also been retrieved by Egyptian search crews. 
 
 The debris was discovered about 290km (180 miles) north of Alexandria, the Egyptian military said. 
 
 European Space Agency satellites spotted an oil slick in the area where the flight went missing but the organisation said there was no guarantee it was from the plane. 
 
 The search is now focused on finding the plane's flight recorders, the Associated Press news agency reports. 
 
 There were smoke alerts from the onboard toilet and the plane's electrics shortly before the signal was lost, according to data published on air industry website the Aviation Herald. 
 
 However, there has been no independent confirmation. 
 
 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has expressed his "utmost sadness and regret" at the crash. 
 
 Greek, Egyptian, French and UK military units have been taking part in a search operation near Greece's Karpathos island. 
 
 Greece said radar showed the Airbus A320 had made two sharp turns and dropped more than 25,000ft (7,620m) before plunging into the sea. 
 
 The focus of the investigation 
 
 Egypt says the plane was more likely to have been brought down by a terrorist act than a technical fault. 
 
 However, there has been "absolutely no indication" so far as to why the plane came down, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday morning. 
 
 Three investigators from the French air accident investigation bureau, along with a technical adviser from Airbus, have joined the Egyptian inquiry. 
 
 The BBC has learned the plane that disappeared was forced to make an emergency landing in 2013 after the pilot noticed the engine overheating, but an official report said the defect had been repaired. 
 
 In France, the focus is on whether a possible breach of security happened at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. 
 
 After last November's Paris attacks, some airport staff had their security clearance revoked over fears of links to Islamic extremists. 
 
 Eric Moutet, a lawyer for some of those employees, told the BBC that there had been attempts by Islamists to recruit airport staff. 
 
 "That is clear," he said. "There are people who are being radicalised in some of the trade unions, etc. The authorities have their work cut out with this problem." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Aviation experts give their views on what may have happened to EgyptAir flight MS804 
 
 In October, an Airbus A321 operated by Russia's Metrojet blew up over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, with all 224 people on board killed. 
 
 Sinai Province, a local affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist group, said it had smuggled a bomb on board. 
 
 What do we know about what happened? 
 
 Flight MS804 left Paris at 23:09 local time on Wednesday (21:09 GMT) and was scheduled to arrive in the Egyptian capital soon after 03:15 local time (01:15 GMT) on Thursday. 
 
 On the plane were 56 passengers, seven crew members and three security personnel. 
 
 Greek aviation officials say air traffic controllers spoke to the pilot when he entered Greek airspace and everything appeared normal. 
 
 They tried to contact him again at 02:27 Cairo time, as the plane was set to enter Egyptian airspace, but "despite repeated calls, the aircraft did not respond". Two minutes later it vanished from radar. 
 
 Philip Baum, the editor of Aviation Security International Magazine, said given smoke was detected on board shortly before the crash it was unlikely to be a hijacking. 
 
 "It's more likely a fire," he told the BBC. "Now whether that was a technical fire, a short circuit or whether it was because a bomb went off on board, we don't know." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What happened to flight MS804? Richard Westcott examines the evidence so far 
 
 Who were the victims? 
 
 EgyptAir flight MS804 Passengers' nationalities 66 people on board - 56 passengers, seven crew members and three security personnel 30 Egyptians 
 
 15 French citizens 
 
 2 Iraqis 
 
 1 from Britain, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, Chad and Portugal AP 
 
 Image copyright Athena Picture Agency Image caption Richard Osman was a father of two and of Egyptian origin 
 
 The names of some of those who were on board have emerged, but most have not been identified publicly. 
 
 Those on board included: 
 
 Richard Osman, a 40-year-old geologist and father-of-two from South Wales; 
 
 Canadian national Marwa Hamdy, a mother-of-three and an executive with IBM originally from Saskatchewan, but who had relocated to Cairo; 
 
 Pascal Hess, a photographer from Normandy, France, who had lost his passport last week - only for it to be found in the street, allowing him to catch the flight; 
 
 An unnamed couple in their 40s from Angers in north-west France, as well as their two children; 
 
 Ahmed Helal, the Egyptian-born manager of a Procter and Gamble plant in Amiens, northern France 
 
 Read more on some of the MS804 victims here 
 
 If anyone is concerned about relatives or friends following the disappearance of the flight, they can call this free number provided by EgyptAir: +202 259 89320 ||||| MS804 plane crash. 
 
 
 
 7:00pm Egypt's aviation ministry said a letter it received from the country's foreign ministry says that Greek authorities have found “floating objects” that are part of the plane wreckage. 
 
 
 
 Pieces of plastic as well as lifejackets have also been found near the island of Karpathos, the ministry added in a statement. 
 
 
 
 "Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected," EgyptAir said. 
 
 
 
 "The Egyptian Investigation Team in co-operation with the Greek counterpart are still searching for other remains of the missing plane." 
 
 
 
 6:40pm France is sending three investigators to Cairo along with a technical expert from Airbus, to join the probe into the EgyptAir flight that crashed Thursday, Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said, according to AFP. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6:00pm The Egyptian Armed forces said in a statement that the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Italy, France and Greece are cooperating in the search for the missing plane. The statement confirmed that the search is still ongoing. 
 
 
 
 5:45pm A Greek frigate discovered two large floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of the island of Crete, Reuters reported. The objects appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red. They were spotted close to an area where a transponder signal was emitted earlier, according to Greek defence sources. 
 
 
 
 5:35pm According to the Guardian correspondent, an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo is departing now. 
 
 
 
 5:15pm Egypt’s aviation ministry denied in a statement reports “about finding the plane debris over the Greek island of Crete.” 
 
 
 
 “EgyptAir contacted concerned sides who did not confirm the published information is accurate,” read the statement. 
 
 
 
 4:45pm Egypt’s State TV says no confirmation yet from Egypt's aviation ministry that plane wreckage has been found. 
 
 
 
 4:30pm Egypt's health ministry announced that family members of the victims of the EgyptAir MS804 plane were aided by a medical team at Cairo International Airport for conditions varying from a mental breakdown to a rise in blood pressure. 
 
 Nine family members received aid at the Airport while one was referred to EgyptAir Hospital. 
 
 Greek state TV said authorities found aircraft parts in the sea while looking for the missing flight MS308, Reuters reported. 
 
 3:15pm Greek military official says an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight, AP reported. 
 
 The official says the items were found 230 miles (370 kilometers) south-southeast of the island of Crete but still within the Egyptian air traffic control area. One of the items was oblong, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations. 
 
 
 
 3:08pm Missing EgyptAir MS804 debris found South of Greek Island of Karpathos in Southern Meditereanean according to Greek State TV 
 
 2:35pm Egyptian aviation minister Fathy told reporters during the press conference that the “possibility of a terror attack is higher than that of a technical error,” according to an Ahram Online reporter. 
 
 Answering Ahram Online's question on why he believes it was likely a terrorist attack rather than a technical error, Fathy said: "I said so based on what I read and from my expertise, but these remain assumptions and possible scenarios. I will still use the word ‘missing’ till we find the debris." 
 
 2:20pm Egypt's Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek ordered an investigation into the incident, according to a prosecution statement. 
 
 Sadek commissioned the Supreme State Security Prosecution to conduct investigations into the matter. 
 
 2:15pm Egypt’s aviation minister said that the last contact with plane was at 2:30am Cairo time. Authorities tried to contact the flight again at 2:50am but there was no response. 
 
 Fathy also said that Egypt will cooperate with French authorities to investigate to the disappearance of the plane. 
 
 1:45pm Egypt's Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said in a press conference that Egypt does not refute the assumption that the missing EgyptAir aircraft might have crashed due to a terrorist attack or a malfunction or any other scenario. 
 
 Fathy stressed that they will continue to say that the Airbus 320 is “missing until the debris is found.” 
 
 1:40pm Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday that a terrorist act might be linked to the disappearance of EgyptAir's MS 804. 
 
 “It is extremely unfortunate that today one more incident happened with a plane from the Egyptian Airlines. It seems that this is a terrorist act, which resulted in the deaths of 66 citizens from around 12 countries,” Bortnikov said during a press conference. 
 
 Egypt said that it is not ruling out that the airliner may have crashed due to a terrorist attack or a technical malfunction. 
 
 1:30pm Greece's civil aviation department released a statement with a timeline on Egypt Air MS 804's latest moments and Greek attempts to contact it. 
 
 1:10pm Greek's Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said on Thursday that no results have been obtained so far in the search for the missing EgyptAir aircraft, Reuters reported. 
 
 Kammenos said that until now there was only a picture obtained of the missing plane that was in Egyptian airspace mid-air and made sudden swerves. 
 
 "At 3.39am the course of the aircraft was south and south-east of Kassos and Karpathos (islands)..immediately after it entered Cairo FIR and made swerves and a descent I describe; 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told a news conference. 
 
 Earlier, Egypt's army spokesman said the search for the plane that disappeared from radar monitors while en Route from Paris to Cairo was taking place where the plane reportedly went missing, with the participation of jets from Greece. 
 
 12:50 Families of the EgyptAir crash victims said that they have no information and that the company said they will get in contact with them when they do, an Ahram Online reporter, Lina Wardani, at Cairo International Airport said. The families refused to speak to the press and covered their faces. 
 
 12:40 Egypt's National Security Council, headed by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, decided to continue the search efforts through Egyptian military jets and navy vessels, and to work on uncovering the circumstances behind the plane's disappearance as soon as possible in cooperation with France and Greece. 
 
 The council, attended by several ministers including the civil aviation minister, also decided to mandate the government with offering all means of aid to the families of passengers and crew members, and called on the crisis management centre at EgyptAir to follow up on the developments and announce any new details 
 
 12:20 French President Francois Hollande has announced that they have confirmation that the EgyptAir plane reported missing has been 'crashed and disappeared'. Hollande stressed that no hypothesis should be ruled out, but they are keen on "finding the truth". 
 
 Earlier, France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday "no theory can be ruled out" in the missing EgyptAir flight. 
 
 
 
 12:10 According to AP, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says "nothing is confirmed" regarding the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight and is warning against some unverified information in circulation. 
 
 Ayrault, speaking after meeting with families gathered at a hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport, tells journalists the priority is "solidarity" with them and extended a "message of compassion and support." 
 
 He says French authorities are in direct contact with Greek and Egyptian authorities. 
 
 11:35 Airbus released a statement saying that it "regrets to confirm the loss of an Egypt Air A320, flight ‪#‎MS804 " 
 
 According to Airbus, the plane went missing at around 2:30 am (local Egypt time) over the Mediterranean Sea, with a scheduled service operating from Paris to Cairo. 
 
 It stressed that until now no further factual information is available, adding that it will provide more details as soon as they are confirmed and cleared by authorities for release. 
 
 Airbus expressed its readiness to provide full technical assistance to the French Investigation Agency and to authorities in charge of the investigation. 
 
 The company provided details about the aircraft involved, which was delivered to EgyptAir from the production line in November 2003 and accumulated 48,000 flight hours with IAE engines. 
 
 11:30 According to AP, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says "nothing is confirmed" regarding the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight and is warning against some unverified information in circulation. 
 
 Ayrault, speaking after meeting with families gathered at a hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport, tells journalists the priority is "solidarity" with them and extended a "message of compassion and support." 
 
 He says French authorities are in direct contact with Greek and Egyptian authorities. 
 
 11.20 Egypt's army said it is taking all the necessary procedures to find the missing plane by dispatching a number of rescue and search jets along with navy vessels specialised in rescue and relief operations. 
 
 A high alert has been imposed in military hospitals and the army is currently in coordination with the cabinet and the foreign and civil aviation ministers to provide the needed support. 
 
 The army spokesman said the search for the disappeared plane is taking place where the plane reportedly went missing, with the participation of jets from Greece. 
 
 Fifty-six passengers including 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, one Briton, one Canadian, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Belgian, one Kuwaiti and one Saudi were on board of the missing plane in addition to 10 crew members. 
 
 11.05 According to Reuters, Greece is deploying military aircraft and a frigate to an area in the southern Mediterranean where an EgyptAir aircraft vanished from radar screens early on Thursday, its defence ministry said. 
 
 Meanwhile, AP reports that the French military says a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants has been dispatched to help search for the EgyptAir flight that crashed in the area. 
 
 Military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron told The Associated Press that the jet is joining the Egypt-led search effort, and the French navy may send another plane and a ship to the zone. 
 
 He said the Falcon was on a surveillance mission as part of EU efforts to monitor migrants crossing the Mediterranean toward Europe. 
 
 10.45 According to AP, the director of Greece's Civil Aviation Authority says air traffic controllers were in contact with the pilot of the EgyptAir flight as it passed through Greek airspace. 
 
 The director, Constantine Lyzerakos, said the plane was at 37,000 feet, traveling at 519 mph, and did not report any problem. 
 
 Lyzerakos told private Antenna television that controllers tried to make contact with the pilot 10 miles before the flight exited the Greek Flight Information Range (FIR), but the pilot did not respond. Lyzerakos says controllers continued trying to contact the pilot until 3:39 a.m. Greek time (1239 GMT) when the plane disappeared from the radar. 
 
 Lyzerakos says the plane was in Cairo's FIR when it vanished. 
 
 10.40 Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault exchanged condolences on the casualties of EgyptAir flight MS804. Meanwhile, there are no confirmations from the Egyptian authorities that the plane has crashed. The two officials stressed that they need to cooperate to understand the reasons behind the crash. 
 
 10.25 There were no weather issues at the time and in the vicinity of the area where an EgyptAir plane with 66 people on board went missing on Thursday morning, European air traffic network manager Eurocontrol told Reuters. 
 
 10.22 France has offered to send planes and boats to the crash area, Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister, declared this morning. 
 
 10.20 PM Sherif Ismail told reporters at Egypt's international airport that search for the lost EgyptAir plane is still underway and that the crisis management centre is putting into consideration all scenarios that could have led to the disappearance of the plane including terrorism. 
 
 Ismail said that the armed forces might have received a plane signal not a pilot signal and that they are still looking into the matter. 
 
 Ismail said that a press conference is expected to take place after 1:00pm local time in Cairo to explain the latest updates on the incident. 
 
 Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy told reporters that all officials are closely following the matter and that families of the passengers are present in the airport. 
 
 10.10 According to AFP and AP, the EgyptAir flight which disappeared on route from Paris to Cairo early Thursday crashed into the sea off the southern Greek island of Karpathos while in Egyptian airspace, a Greek aviation source told AFP. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Egyptian aviation ministry says the causes of the disappearance are still unknown and has denied all circulating reports of a crash. 
 
 10.00 A joint crisis management centre between Egypt and France has been created at France’s international Charles De Gaulles airport to be able help families of passengers who on the lost plane. 
 
 9.50 EgyptAir said the reasons behind the sudden disappearance of EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo are still unknown. In their seventh statement since the disappearance of the aircraft, EgyptAir asks all media outlets to be cautious and to stick to their issued press releases. 
 
 9.40 Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is currently holding an urgent meeting with the National Security Council to follow the latest updates and news on the lost EgyptAir flight. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters from the EgyptAir crisis center that the search is still underway and that there is still no confirmations on the missing plane. 
 
 9.35 According to AFP, France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that "no theory can be ruled out" as to why the EgyptAir flight went missing. 
 
 09:20 According to the armed forces, no distress signal was in fact received from the plane. A brief note posted a few moments ago by the army's official spokesman, Mohamed Samir, on Facebook said that the armed forces "had not received any SOS signal" from the lost plane. 
 
 09:15 French President Francois Hollande called Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to follow developments, AFP reports. The French president is due to hold a crisis meeting with senior officials later. 
 
 Meanwhile, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has arrived at EgyptAir's crisis centre, the airline reported, where he will follow the situation in person. 
 
 09:10 From an EgyptAir statement: An EgyptAir official said that the Egyptian army's rescue and search had received a distress call from the plane at 4:26 Cairo local time. 
 
 The implications of this are still unclear. 
 
 09:00 There are unofficial reports that the plane may indeed have crashed. AP quotes "Egyptian aviation officials" as saying that "the possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed." The search is currently underway for the debris, the officials said, requesting anonymity as they were not cleared to speak to the press. 
 
 08:00 The Egyptian army has dispatched jet fighters to search for the missing flight, an army spokesman statement read. 
 
 The army is coordinating the search with Greece and Egyptian and Greek naval vessels have been dispatched to hunt for the plane, amid fears it may have crashed in the Mediterranean. 
 
 07:45 EgyptAir said the 56 passengers including 3 children on board include 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, one Briton, one Canadian, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Belgian, one Kuwaiti and one Saudi. Ten staff members were also on board, three of them were security personnel. 
 
 -- 
 
 An EgyptAir flight vanished early this morning en route from Paris to Cairo. Radar signals from flight MS804 were lost at 2:30am Cairo time, EgyptAir have said, around the time the flight entered Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean. 
 
 The commercial flight left Paris at 11:09pm GMT and was due to land at Cairo airport at 03:15am local time. 
 
 Sources told Al-Ahram Arabic website that air traffic controllers in Athens had failed to establish communication with the pilot after the plane went off the radar. 
 
 Fifty-six passengers and 10 crew members are on board. 
 
 Authorities say they lost contact with the plane as it was cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet at 2:45am Cairo local time. 
 
 Rescue teams and the Egyptian armed forces have been searching the area where the plane was last spotted on the radar. 
 
 The company identified the plane as an Airbus 320 manufactured in 2003. 
 
 The pilot, who was identified by sources as Captain Mohamed Shokeir, has over 6,000 flight hours while the copilot has over 2,000 hours of flight. 
 
 Short link: ||||| This still image taken from video posted Saturday, May 21, 2016, on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman shows a piece of carpet from the wreckage of EgyptAir flight 804.... (Associated Press) 
 
 This still image taken from video posted Saturday, May 21, 2016, on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman shows a piece of carpet from the wreckage of EgyptAir flight 804. Smoke was detected in multiple places on EgyptAir flight 804 moments before it plummeted into the Mediterranean,... (Associated Press) 
 
 CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's president said on Sunday a submarine belonging to his country's Oil Ministry was headed to the site of the crash of EgyptAir Flight-804 in the eastern Mediterranean to join the search for the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, commonly known as black boxes. 
 
 President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi also said Egypt was jointly investigating the Thursday crash with the French government. "It is very, very important to us to establish the circumstances that led to the crash of that aircraft," he said in comments broadcast live on Egyptian TV channels. 
 
 He said the submarine, which has the capacity to operate at a depth of 3,000 meters (9842 feet) below the surface, left for the site Sunday. He gave no further details. 
 
 Making his first public comments since the crash of the Airbus A320 while en route from Paris to Cairo, el-Sissi says it "will take time" to determine the exact cause of the crash, which killed all 66 people on board. 
 
 He thanked the nations that have joined Egyptian navy ships and aircraft in the search for the wreckage and started his comments with a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims. 
 
 El-Sissi also cautioned the media against premature speculation on the cause of the crash. 
 
 "There is not one scenario that we can exclusively subscribe to ... all scenarios are possible," he said. 
 
 El-Sissi spoke a day after the leak of flight data showing trouble in the cockpit and smoke in a plane lavatory aboard the doomed aircraft, bringing into focus the chaotic final moments of the flight, including a three-minute period before contact was lost as alarms on the plane screeched one after another. 
 
 Officials have been cautioning that it was still too early to say what happened to the aircraft, but mounting evidence points to a sudden, dramatic catastrophe that led to the crash. 
 
 Egypt's military on Saturday released the first images of aircraft debris plucked from the sea, including personal items and damaged seats. Egypt is leading a multi-nation effort to search for the plane's black boxes and other clues that could help explain its sudden plunge into the sea. 
 
 "If they lost the aircraft within three minutes that's very, very quick," said aviation security expert Philip Baum. "They were dealing with an extremely serious incident." 
 
 Authorities say the plane lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and plummeted 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) into the sea — never issuing a distress call. 
 
 Investigators have been poring over the plane's passenger list and questioning ground crew at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, where the airplane took off. Beside Egypt, ships and planes from Britain, Cyprus, France, Greece and the United States are taking part searching a wide area of sea 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. 
 
 The EgyptAir tragedy deepens the country's struggle to revive its battered economy. While it may not reflect directly on security at Egypt's airports — which has been under international scrutiny since a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in October after taking off from an Egyptian resort — the country's association with yet another air disaster will further damage its vital but currently depressed tourism industry. ||||| Image copyright Egyptian Military/Reuters Image caption Debris from the plane has been recovered from the sea north of the Egyptian coast 
 
 A French naval ship specialising in underwater searches is on its way to help find the flight recorders of an EgyptAir plane that crashed last week. 
 
 On Thursday, Egypt's chief investigator said the search had narrowed to about 5km (3.1 miles) in the Mediterranean. 
 
 This was based on a signal from the plane's emergency beacon, but officials now say the signal was received on the day of the crash and is not new. 
 
 There were 66 people on board when the Airbus A320 crashed on 19 May. 
 
 The plane was flying overnight from Paris to Cairo when it vanished from Greek and Egyptian radar screens, apparently without having sent a distress call. 
 
 France's air accident investigation agency, the BEA, confirmed a naval oceanographic research ship, Laplace, is heading for the crash site. 
 
 In a statement, it said the ship was due to reach the crash area on Sunday or Monday, carrying a long-range acoustic system able to detect signals from the black box. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Hundreds of people gathered in Cairo for a candlelit vigil for the victims on Thursday 
 
 Egypt's chief investigator, Ayman al-Moqadem, had said on Thursday that a signal detected was from a beacon situated in the rear of the cabin on the plane which transmits its location. 
 
 However, other officials on Friday told journalists that the signal was received on the day of the crash, and that there had been no other signals since. 
 
 "There has been nothing since day one," one official close to the investigation told Reuters. 
 
 On Thursday, hundreds of people gathered in Cairo for a candlelit vigil for the victims of the crash. 
 
 Among those on board MS804 were 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, two Iraqis, two Canadians and citizens from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. 
 
 They included a boy and two babies as well as seven crew and three security staff. 
 
 Debris from the plane has been recovered from the sea, some 290km (180 miles) north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. 
 
 Media caption BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott looks at the possible meaning of EgyptAir's smoke alerts 
 
 Egypt's president has said that "all scenarios are possible", but Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said last Friday that a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure. 
 
 Greece's defence minister said last week that, after leaving Greek airspace and before it disappeared from Greek radar, the plane abruptly turned 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right, dropping from 11,300m (37,000 ft) to 4,600m (15,000ft) and then 3,000m (10,000ft). 
 
 The Aviation Herald also reported that the plane sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board three minutes before it disappeared. 
 
 However, an Egyptian aviation official denied the plane had deviated from its route, and that there had been reports of smoke. 
 
 Sources from Egypt's investigation team told Reuters and Associated Press on Friday that no emergency signals had been detected from the plane since the day it disappeared. Such signals are too weak to transmit from underwater, although signals from the flight recorders may yet be detected. ||||| PARIS — Searchers in the Mediterranean have found the first sunken wreckage of the EgyptAir flight that mysteriously veered off course and plunged from 37,000 feet last month, the Egyptian government reported Wednesday. 
 
 All 66 people aboard the jetliner, EgyptAir Flight 804 bound for Cairo from Paris, were killed in the still-unexplained crash on May 19, as the plane was on the final leg of its trip in Egyptian airspace. 
 
 News of the discovered wreckage was reported in a statement from the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee, established by the government to find out what happened to the plane, an Airbus A320. 
 
 The statement said a search vessel, the John Lethbridge, had found and “identified several main locations of the wreckage” and that investigators had been provided with photographic images taken from the seabed, roughly 10,000 feet below the surface. 
 
 There was no immediate word on the precise location of the wreckage or whether it included the data recorders that are essential for helping determine why the plane crashed. 
 
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 The discovery was the first significant breakthrough in the search for the plane since investigators said they had detected signals from one of its two flight recorder beacons, or “pingers,” nearly two weeks ago. 
 
 With the battery life of those beacons expiring by next week, investigators are hoping to retrieve the recorders — which contain cockpit conversations and data from the plane’s onboard computers — before they fall silent. 
 
 Investigators and search teams will begin mapping the debris field on the ocean floor, the Egyptian committee said. Even in the absence of the data from the flight recorders, air accident experts have said that the distribution of the wreckage would yield significant clues. If the debris contains large pieces of the plane that are concentrated in a relatively small area, that would suggest that the plane hit the water largely intact. Smaller debris scattered across a wide area would suggest that it broke up in midair — possibly the result of an explosion. 
 
 Remi Jouty, the director of France’s air accidents bureau, which is advising Egypt in the investigation, said last week that investigators were still “very far” from understanding what may have caused the crash. Earlier this week, the Egyptian authorities appeared to back away from suggestions that Flight 804 had disappeared abruptly from radar screens — a scenario that had fanned theories that the plane might have been brought down by a terrorist bomb or other deliberate act, rather than a mechanical or other failure. 
 
 In a statement published Monday, the Egyptian investigation committee said it had validated radar data provided by the Greek authorities in the days after the crash that indicated that the plane had swerved abruptly off course, first making a sharp left turn before veering to the right and spiraling down into the sea. 
 
 With the wreckage found, the French Navy said it had recalled its survey ship, the Laplace, from the search zone. Investigators aboard the John Lethbridge will now deploy an underwater robot and sonar equipment to locate the flight recorders and bring them to the surface. 
 
 The Egyptian authorities this week invited experts from the United States National Transportation Safety Board to join the EgyptAir crash investigation team, as well as engineers from Honeywell, the manufacturer of the flight recorders. 
 
 Besides the radar tracks now confirmed by both the Greek and Egyptian authorities, the only confirmed data received from the plane were a series of seven automated messages sent to an EgyptAir maintenance base. Those messages included two smoke alerts — one in a bathroom, and another in an electronics bay near the cockpit and close to many of the plane’s computerized control systems. But while the alerts indicate that there was an emergency on board, experts have said they are not sufficient to explain the disaster. ||||| EgyptAir hostesses line up during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804 in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, May 26, 2016. The cause of Thursday's crash of the EgyptAir jet flying from Paris... (Associated Press) 
 
 EgyptAir hostesses line up during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804 in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, May 26, 2016. The cause of Thursday's crash of the EgyptAir jet flying from Paris to Cairo that killed all 66 people aboard still has not been determined. Ships and planes from Egypt,... (Associated Press) 
 
 CAIRO (AP) — A French vessel that joined the search for the EgyptAir plane which crashed last week killing all 66 people on board arrived Friday in the crash area, as Egyptian officials said search teams in the Mediterranean have picked up a beacon believed to be from the doomed aircraft. 
 
 According to Egyptian security officials, the French ship is carrying equipment that can find flight data and cockpit voice recorders — the so-called "black boxes." French officials could not be immediately reached to confirm the ship's whereabouts. 
 
 Meanwhile, the chief investigator in Egypt said search teams in the Mediterranean have picked up a beacon believed to be from the EgyptAir Flight 804. Locating a beacon has narrowed the search to a 5 kilometer (3 mile) radius, said Ayman al-Moqadem, stressing that this doesn't mean the black boxes have been found, which he said requires highly sophisticated technology. 
 
 The signal that was picked up came from one of the devices on the plane transmitting its location, said al-Moqadem, who spoke to reporters on Thursday. 
 
 Eight days after the plane crashed off Egypt's northern coast on a Paris to Cairo flight, the cause of the tragedy still has not been determined. Ships and planes from Egypt, Greece, France, the United States and other nations have been searching the Mediterranean north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria for the jet's voice and flight data recorders, as well as more bodies and parts of the aircraft. 
 
 Small pieces of the wreckage and human remains have already been recovered while the bulk of the plane and the bodies of the passengers are believed to be deep under the sea. A Cairo forensic team has received the human remains and is carrying DNA tests to identify the victims. 
 
 Egypt's civil aviation minister Sherif Fathi has said he believes terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event. But no hard evidence has emerged on the cause, and no militant group has claimed to have downed the jet. Earlier, leaked flight data indicated a sensor detected smoke in a lavatory and a fault in two of the plane's cockpit windows in the final moments of the flight. 
 
 The French air accident investigation agency, the BEA, said in a statement that the Laplace ship left Thursday from Corsica for the zone of the crash, with two BEA investigators aboard. The Laplace is equipped with three detectors made by the Alseamar company designed to detect and localize signals from the flight recorders, believed about 3,000 meters (3,280 yards) underwater. 
 
 France may also send an unmanned submarine and deep-sea retrieval equipment, the statement said. The BEA is involved in the search because the crashed plane was an Airbus, manufactured in France. 
 
 Because of the difficulties in finding the black boxes, Egypt has contracted two foreign companies to help locate the flight data recorders of the plane. 
 
 One of the companies is Alseamar, which has equipment aboard the French vessel. Egyptian official have said the second company is called Deep Ocean Search. Also, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said earlier that a submarine would join the search for the plane's data recorders. 
 
 However, al-Moqadem told reporters that the submarine is not equipped to detect signals from the black boxes. 
 
 All Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
– Debris from EgyptAir Flight 804 has been found in the waters near Greece's Karpathos Island, ABC News reports via a statement from the airline. The country's Ministry of Civil Aviation was sent an official letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirming the find; EgyptAir says family members of passengers and crew have been informed and "conveys its deepest sorrows." Meanwhile, as officials probe the cause of the crash, an Egyptian official says it's looking more like terrorism than mechanical malfunction, USA Today reports. In a Thursday press conference held before the debris was confirmed, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi says the "possibility of a terror attack is higher than that of a technical error," noting he based that assessment on "what I read and from my expertise," per Al-Ahram. But, he added, "these remain assumptions and possible scenarios." More developments: NBC News offers a breakdown of what countries the passengers were from. A radar map showing the plane's flight path appears on the Telegraph. There were three air marshals aboard the flight, per MSNBC. CBS News examines Egypt's "checkered air travel safety record." In addition to aviation experts, government officials, and law enforcement authorities, Donald Trump is chiming in on what he thinks happened, the New York Post reports.