EgyptAir Flight 804 Disappears

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EgyptAir Flight 804 Disappears

EgyptAir Flight 804 Disappears

UPDATES at the end of this post.

EgyptAir flight 804 en route from Paris, France to Cairo, Egypt disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday morning, as reported by the New York Times. There were 66 souls aboard EgyptAir 804. There were ten crew (three were security agents) and 56 passengers, including one child and two infants. The break out of passengers and their countries:

Passengers by countries on EgyptAir Flight 804
Passengers by countries on EgyptAir Flight 804

According to the New York Times reporting:

EgyptAir said it had last made radar contact with the plane at 2:30 a.m., when it was 175 miles off the Egyptian coast. The plane’s pilot had spoken to Greek air traffic controllers four minutes earlier, and had not indicated that there was any problem, according to a spokesman for the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority. “Within three minutes, communication was lost,” he said.

An EgyptAir Airbus A320
An EgyptAir Airbus A320

In a flurry of posts on Twitter on Thursday, EgyptAir emphasized the experience of the crew of the missing airliner, an Airbus A320. The pilot has more than 6,000 flying hours, and the co-pilot has 2,700 hours, the airline said.

While the reporting has mainly focused on the Paris to Cairo route, this particular EgyptAir Airbus plane had been a real workhorse the last few days. As reported by Heavy.com:

The plane had also flown from Asmara, Eritrea, where it had been overnight, to Cairo, and then from Cairo to Tunis, Tunisia. From there, it flew back to Cairo and then to Paris.

Routine maintenance checks were performed on the plane before the final flight from Paris to Cairo, officials told CNN.

EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea
EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea

While scolds would tell us not to speculate or focus solely on terrorism to the exclusion of mechanical or human error, some of us have common sense and can us it. Planes do not randomly fall out of the sky. Additionally, France and Egypt have been the targets of terrorist attacks in recent months.

Paris was attacked at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in January, 2015 and in several coordinated locations in November, 2015. Egypt has been attacked by ISIS in the Sinai and through the downing of the Russian tourist plane in November, 2015, effectively killing the Egyptian tourist industry.

The Daily Mail is reporting that French intelligence warned that France was being targeted by ISIS just a week ago.

Mr Calvar was quoted in The Local as saying: ‘We risk being confronted with a new form of attack: a terrorist campaign characterised by leaving explosive devices in places where big crowds gather, multiplying this type of action to create a climate of panic.’
He made no mention of attacks on aircraft but said he believed France was ‘the country most threatened’ by ISIS, which is often known as Daesh, and also warned that Al-Qaeda remained a threat and was champing at the bit to ‘restore its image’ as a major player, especially in the Maghreb and the Arabian peninsula.

This report from CBS This Morning filed this report:

The report is interesting from not just from the description of the planes last movements, but also from the graphic of the boats that swarmed into that area of the Mediterranean Sea. Because of the location in a busy area of the Mediterranean Sea, it should be easier for investigators to get the many pieces of the plane. The more debris they collect, the more sure the answer for WHY will be.

I pray for the families of those lost on EgyptAir Flight 804. I am grateful for the strong leadership of Presidents Francois Hollande of France and Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. I trust these two leaders to find the answers much more than our own feckless and incompetent leadership.

Victory Girls will provide updates as needed.

UPDATED

Pilots identified.

The New York Times has reported that the pilots of EgyptAir Flight 804 have been identified as Mohamed Saeed Shaqeer and Mohamed Ahmed Mamdouh. They are not believed to have had any political affiliations and passed periodic background checks.

Additionally, Fox News is reporting that the debris field has been located.

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9 Comments
  • GWB says:

    There was also a B52 crash “this morning”* on Guam. Crew survived and got out of the airplane, but the craft was consumed by the fire. Speculating with my cubicle neighbor (a former B52 pilot) we think it was an aborted takeoff. Pictures seen to show the aircrew went out the regular crew hatch, so it must have been up on its gear when it stopped.

    (* “this morning” means ~8:30am Thursday, Guam time, which equates to last night Eastern US time. Guam is where America meets the day – only American land over the International Date Line. And a looooooong way from anywhere.)

    • Toni S Williams says:

      Glad the whole crew is okay. Well at least they got out of the B-52. My son’s high school girlfriend wanted Guam. She is a bosun’s mate in the Navy. She won’t go back to school so to punish her the Navy sent her to sasebo Japan instead.
      T

      • GWB says:

        I enjoyed my 2 years there at Andersen AFB. But it certainly defines the notion of “middle of nowhere”.

  • GWB says:

    They’ve found some wreckage, right about where they thought they would.

    The left 90°, right 360°, accompanied by a rapid descent, sounds almost like an evasion maneuver was attempted. Or, perhaps, an attempt to throw an attacker off their feet.
    It could also be a catastrophic failure of lift/thrust on one side of the aircraft, followed by over-correction, committing the aircraft to a spiral into the water.

    Hope they find the black boxes quickly.

    • GWB says:

      It appears the Greeks are denying the debris is from the flight. I think the Egyptians are standing by the claim.

      • Toni Williams says:

        I know the victims’ families would love for them to recover the bodies. I hope, like you said, they find the black boxes quickly.

        T

      • GWB says:

        And the Egyptians are now saying mea culpa. Damn.

        • GWB says:

          And they now have found an oil slick and bodies and luggage. Egypt and Greece both believe this is related to the crash.

  • GWB says:

    Over 36 hours and no claim of responsibility. That raises the percentages that it might actually be a mechanical/electrical problem.
    As a pilot, that’s actually scarier than a terrorist. Because you trust your airplane will not try to kill you. An autopilot that would take you out of the realm of controlled flight would be muy ugly.

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