EgyptAir MS804 Crash: Everything We Know So Far

EgyptAir flight MS804 disappeared from radar early Thursday morning as it flew above the Mediterranean Sea, en route to Cairo, Egypt from Paris.  Here's what we know so far about the incident. 

Authorities confirmed the plane crashed, according to The Guardian, which said it went down around the Greek island of Karpathos, where rescue efforts are focused.  An Egyptian plane spotted two orange objects on Thursday believed to be from flight MS804, according to The Associated Press, but officials later determined the debris were not connected to the flight.  Egyptian authorities walked back earlier statements saying they'd discovered wreckage. 

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"We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane," EgyptAir's Vice Chairman Ahmed Adel told CNN. " So the search and rescue is still going on." 

On Friday afternoon Cairo time, Egyptian authorities said they discovered a body part, two seats and suitcases from flight MS804 in the Mediterranean, according to The Associated Press. 

The cause of the crash is currently unknown, and authorities are saying they can't rule out terrorism or mechanical failure as a cause right now.  Although Sherif Fathy, Egypt's minister of Civil Aviation, said a terrorist attack is a more likely scenario than technical failure. " If you analysis the situation properly the possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical [problem]," he said, according to The Guardian. 

An EgyptAir Airbus A320, the same model airplane that crashed on May 19 in the Mediterranean Sea. 

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The flight departed from Charles de Gaulle airport at 11:09 p.m. local time and was scheduled to land in Cairo at 3:15 a.m. on Thursday. 

Everything appeared to be normal on the flight until it entered Egyptian airspace, according to CNN.  At 3:27 AM local time, as the flight was about to leave Greek airspace, controllers attempted to reach the pilots but failed to get a response.  Forty seconds after the plane entered Egyptian airspace, it vanished from radar. 

The plane swerved and then plunged from its cruising altitude to about 10,000 feet, according to CBS News, before disappearing from radar. 

The plane's emergency device emitted a signal roughly two hours after its disappearance. 

The captain had 6,275 flying hours, according to EgyptAir, including 2,101 hours on the A320.  The co-pilot had 2,766 hours. 

There were 66 people aboard the flight, EgyptAir said, including 10 crew members—three of whom were security personnel—and 56 passengers including three children.  Among the passengers, there were 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one each from Great Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada. 

Families of passengers aboard EgyptAir MS804 gather at the Cairo airport on Thursday.