EgyptAir plane from Paris to Cairo crashes; terror motive suspected

An EgyptAir plane en route from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people crashed into the Mediterranean sea off the Greek island of Crete on Thursday with Egypt saying it was more likely caused by a terror attack than technical problems.

An Egyptian search plane located two orange items believed to be from the EgyptAir flight, southeast of Crete, a Greek military official said, adding that one of the items was oblong.

Greek state television ERT earlier reported that debris had been spotted some 425 km from Crete, about 100 nautical miles from the Airbus A320's last known location.

Egypt's Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi told a news conference that a "terror" attack was a more probable explanation for the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight than technical failure.

Asked whether a technical failure was behind the crash, Fathi said, "On the contrary...if you thoroughly analyze the situation, the possibility of having a different action or a terror attack, is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure."

"We don't deny the possibility of a terror attack or a technical error," Fathi.

The plane was carrying 56 passengers -- including three children -- seven crew members and three security personnel. 

Apart from 30 Egyptians, the plane was carrying 15 French passengers, two Iraqis and one each from Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.

Earlier, French President Francois Hollande confirmed that the EgyptAir Airbus A320 had "crashed".

"We must ensure that we know everything on the causes of what happened. No hypothesis is ruled out or favoured," he said in a televised address.

"Whether it was an accident or another hypothesis that everyone has on their mind -- a terrorist hypothesis... at this stage we must focus on our solidarity with the families and the search for the causes of the catastrophe," Hollande said.

Though nothing had been confirmed about the reasons for the crash both France and Egypt have come under attack from Islamic State terror group in the past year.

Paris prosecutor's office said its accident department had opened an investigation into the incident.

Greece's Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the plane fell 22,000 feet and swerved sharply in Egyptian airspace before it disappeared from radar screens.

"The plane carried out a 90-degree turn to the left and a 360-degree turn to the right, falling from 37,000 to 15,000 feet and the signal was lost at around 10,000 feet," Kammenos told a news conference.

However, Greek aviation officials said earlier that air traffic controllers had spoken to the pilot a few minutes earlier and everything had appeared normal.

Egypt and Greece both dispatched aircraft and naval vessels on a search mission and they were expected to be joined by French teams.

The plane lost contact with radar after it entered Egyptian airspace, around 280 kilometres off the country's coastline north of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. 

The aviation officials later said the plane crashed and that a search for debris was now underway.

The "possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed," the officials said.

Some of the relatives of those on board gathered at airports in Cairo and Paris to wait for news.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault who met some of the relatives at a crisis centre in Paris Charles de Gaulle called it a "moment of intense emotion" for them.

The flight left Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at 23:09 local time on Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive in the Egyptian capital soon after 03:15 local time on Thursday.

An EgyptAir statement was quoted by the local media as saying that the Egyptian army's rescue and search had received a distress call from the plane at 04:26 local time -- around two hours after the flight disappeared.

However, Egypt's military subsequently said that no such signal had been received.

Earlier, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash.

"We cannot rule anything out," he told reporters at Cairo airport.

Hollande also held an emergency meeting and spoke with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on the phone. They agreed "to closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances" surrounding the incident.

Egypt's Civil Aviation Minister Fathi when asked if a previous technical error in the plane in 2013 could be a reason for the crash, said, "we can't speak about a past error (which was already fixed years ago) as being a reason for the plane crash".

"Some say that there is a technical error and this is not possible. No one flies with a plane that has a technical error. Any plane goes under many check before it flies," Fathi said.

EgyptAir was hosting the passengers' families near to Cairo Airport and has provided doctors, translators and all the necessary services to them. 

In March, another EgyptAir flight from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to divert to Cyprus, where the hijacker demanded to see his former wife.

He had claimed he was wearing an explosive vest, which turned out to be fake, and surrendered within hours after freeing the passengers and crew.

In October, the Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian airliner flying home holidaymakers from the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.

The group said it had smuggled a bomb concealed in a soda can on board the plane at Sharm El-Sheikh airport.