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:

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.

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.

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.