Egypt airplane disappears from radar in Cairo

Egypt Air flight MS804 heading from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board is believed to have crashed in the Mediterranean Sea after disappearing from radar.

The Airbus A320 left the French capital’s Charles De Gaulle Airport at 9.09pm GMT on Wednesday then went missing three hours and 40 minutes into its journey.

The last communication with the pilot was when the plane was over the Greek island of Kea.

“The pilot did not mention any problems,” Greece Civil Aviation Department head Kostas Litzerakis said.

Around 15 family members of passengers on board the missing flight arrived at Cairo airport desperately seeking news of their missing relatives.

Both the Greek and Egyptian armed forces are involved in the search for the plane. France says it is sending boats and planes to help in the operation.

EgyptAir released the nationalities of the passengers on board: 30 Egyptian, 15 French, two Iraqi, one British, one Belgian, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Canadian.

Flights over Egypt have encountered trouble on several occasions in recent history, prompting aviation authorities to instruct pilots to fly over 26,000 feet in the region.