Live - EgyptAir flight disappears from radar

A man passes the Egyptair desk at Charles de Gaulle airport, after an Egyptair flight disappeared from radar during its flight from Paris to Cairo, in Paris, France, May 19, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

EgyptAir has offered toll-free numbers for passengers' relatives as follow:

080077770000 from any landline in Egypt and +202 25989320 from any mobile phone or from outside Egypt.

Story highlights:

* EgyptAir Flight MS804 disappeared from radar en route from Paris to Cairo.

* The plane, an Airbus A320, lost contact about 280 km (175 miles) from the Egyptian seacoast at 2:30 am local time.

* The flight was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew.

* Aboard flight were 30 Egyptians, 15 French, nationals from 10 other countries.

* Too early to rule out any cause, including terrorism, Egypt premier said.

9:09 pm

A Greek frigate searching for the missing plane discovered two large floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of the island of Crete, Greek defence sources said.

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, the sources said.

Greek state TV ERT reported similar information, saying two "orange-coloured" objects were located in the same area.

8:28 pm

Search teams have yet to find debris from the EgyptAir aircraft that vanished over Egyptian airspace en route to Cairo from Paris, Egypt's aviation minister told a news conference.

Search efforts were focused near the Greek island of Karpathos as well as the vicinity just south of it, but the search is "flexible," he said.

The flight path of EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo is seen on a flight tracking screen May 19, 2016. Courtesy: Flightradar24.com

7:26 pm

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said EgyptAir flight MS804 went missing 20 minutes before landing.

Ayrault made the remarks at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport where he will meet the families of the French passengers, Le Figaro reported Thursday.

6:41 pm

No hypothesis can so far be ruled out about the fate of the plane that went missing earlier on Thursday on its way from Paris to Cairo, French President Francois Hollande said.

"Unfortunately the information we have ... confirms to us that the plane came down and is lost," Hollande said. "No hypothesis can be ruled out, nor can any be favoured over another."

Separately, Paris prosecutors said that they were opening an investigation into matter.

6:12 pm

Greek authorities said a search was still underway off a remote Greek island for possible remains of a missing EgyptAir aircraft, with nothing being found.

4:46 pm

Greece deploys ship, aircraft to search for EgyptAir plane

Greece is deploying military aircraft and a frigate to an area in the southern Mediterranean where the aircraft vanished from radar screens early on Thursday, its defence ministry said.

The search for the missing EgyptAir plane was taking place at sea, about 130 nautical miles southeast of the island of Karpathos, the Greek defence ministry said.

4:20 pm

There were no weather issues at the time and in the vicinity of the area where the plane with 66 people on board went missing on Thursday morning, European air traffic network manager Eurocontrol said.

4:06 pm

Egypt's civil aviation ministry said in a statement that it was too early to confirm if the missing flight had crashed.

Some media, quoting aviation officials speaking off the record, have said that the plane most likely crashed. However, search teams have yet to find any wreckage to confirm this.

4:00 pm

Egyptian PM: Terrorism cannot be ruled out

Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Thursday it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism.

Asked by a journalist if he could rule out that terrorists were behind the incident, Ismail said: "We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything. All the search operations must be concluded so we can know the cause."

3:53 pm

Confusion over distress signal

Egytpian army denied in a statement posted on its official Facebook page that it received any distress messages from the missing plane, almost two hours after the airline's statement saying that rescue services from the country's armed forces confirmed receiving a distress signal.

2:52 pm

Distress signal received

Rescue services from the Egyptian armed forces reported receiving a distress signal at 04:26 am local time (0226 GMT) from the missing plane, two hours after the last contact was known, an official of the airline said in a statement.

2:27 pm

Greek air traffic controllers spoke to the pilot when the missing plane was flying over Greece, but didn't report any problems, Reuters reported.

2:09 pm

French government will hold a ministerial meeting at 0630 GMT (2:30 pm Beijing Time) over the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight, according to French President's Office.

2:02 pm

When and where contact was lost changed

EgyptAir has just updated information about the time contact with the plane was lost, now saying it was 2.30 am local time (00.30 GMT), and not 2.45 am, as it earlier stated. The plane disappeared above the Mediterranean sea about 280 km (175 miles) from the Egyptian seacoast, different from the previous statement of around 50 km north of the Egyptian coastline.

1:46 pm

Passenger nationalities

EgyptAir has published a list of most of those on board by nationality. No Chinese national was known aboard.

30 Egyptian

15 French

2 Iraqi

1 British

1 Belgian

1 Sudanese

1 Chadian

1 Portuguese

1 Algerian

1:40 pm

Missing plane 'did not land' - French official

Referring to flight MS804 reported missing by the Egyptian airline, the French official, asking not to be identified by name, told Reuters: "It did not land. That is all we can say for the moment."

1:35 pm

Greece joins search and rescue

Greek Defence Ministry says it has deployed frigate, military aircraft to southern Mediterranean in an effort to locate missing Egyptair plane.

1:30 pm

Airbus, the manufacturer of the missing A320 aircraft, tweeted that it has "no further details" on the missing plane, but will "provide further information when available."

1:15 pm

The airline tweeted that the aircraft pilot has 6275 of flying hours including 2101 flying hours on Airbus 320, while the co-pilot he has 2766 flying hours.  

The manufacturing date of the aircraft in 2003.

1:09 pm

One child and two infants aboard

EgyptAir tweeted that one child and two infants were among the 66 people aboard.

1:00 pm

EgyptAir has confirmed the flight was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two infants, and 10 crew.

The pilot had 6,000 flight hours.

Earlier, the airline said 69 people were on board.

12:20 pm

More background:

Russia banned incoming flights by the airline in November after a Russian jet crash in Sinai that Islamist militants claimed to have caused. Reuters reported in January that an EgyptAir mechanic, whose cousin joined Islamic State in Syria, is suspected of planting the bomb, according to sources familiar with the matter.

12:12 pm

Background:

EgyptAir was at the center of another aviation incident in March when its plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus by a man with what authorities said was a fake suicide belt. He was arrested after giving himself up.

12:01 pm

EgyptAir confirmed on Twitter that the plane was Airbus A320.

11:52 am

What we know now

* EgyptAir Flight MS804 disappeared from radar en route from Paris to Cairo.

* The plane, an Airbus A320, was scheduled to leave Paris at 11.09 pm local time.

* The plane was travelling at 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar.

* The plane lost contact after entering the Egyptian airspace with 10 miles at 2.45am local time.

* The flight was carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew.

* Search and rescue teams were assembled.

11:46 am

According to flightradar24.com, the plane was an Airbus A320 and its last known position was above the Mediterranean Sea.

Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry said search and rescue teams were assembled. 

11:43 am

The plane was at a height of 37.000ft, and disappeared after entering the Egyptian airspace with 10 miles, the airline tweeted.

11:28 am

The flight was scheduled to leave Paris at 11.09 pm local time. The journey from Paris to Cairo takes around 3 hours 45 minutes.

An EgyptAir flight heading from Paris to Cairo has disappeared from radar, the airline tweeted.

Egyptair says 59 passengers and 10 crew are aboard on flight MS804 which took off from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport late on Wednesday night.