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Updates to EgyptAir Flight MS804

by Emily Shire

Late Wednesday night, EgyptAir Flight MS804 disappeared from radar, according to the airline. The flight disappeared en route from Paris to Cairo. Although earlier reports said the plane was carrying 69 people aboard (59 passengers and 10 crew members). a later report from The Guardian noted EgyptAir holding company's vice chairman, Ahmed Abdel, said 66 people were on board. Update: On Thursday morning, Egyptian aviation officials confirmed with the Associated Press that the EgyptAir plane has crashed. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with AP, said the "possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed," since flight MS804 never arrived at any of the airports. The officials told AP they will now be searching for debris from the plane.

EgyptAir confirmed that 56 passengers were on board, including one child and two babies, according to The Guardian. The airline reported that the flight left Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris at 11:09 p.m. local time. EgyptAir said the plane was at an altitude of approximately 37,000 feet.

According to The Guardian, Abdel told CNN, "Search and rescue has been dispatched and are now at the scene ... Daylight has just broken around an hour ago, so we should get some information within the next hour." He also said there were "no recorded snags coming out of Cairo" and that the captain of Flight MS804 had more 6,000 hours of flying, including 2,000 on this plane's specific model, Airbus A320. EgyptAir stated the plane was manufactured in 2003, according to The Guardian.

It was initially reported that the plane had been around 80 miles from Egyptian air space, but later reports stated the plane had entered Egyptian territory, according to BuzzFeed. Specifically, the latest reports indicate that the plane disappeared from radar 10 miles after entering Egyptian air space. The plane was scheduled to land at 3:05 a.m. local time, but disappeared from radar at 2:45 a.m.

According to the most recent reports, EgyptAir Flight MS804 was last tracked by online radar, it had been in flight for three hours and 40 minutes and was over the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

EgyptAir's media center has been tweeting updates, including that it "will update as more information becomes available." The airline tweeted that it "has contacted the concerned authorities and bodies and inspection is underway through the rescue teams."