[searchingheaven]

I have just been informed of this unfortunate news. Egypt Air flight 804, from Paris to Cairo has disappeared. The aircraft in question is a Airbus A320, manufactured in 2003, registration SU-GCC.

What we know now:

• Contact was lost around inside Egyptian airspace at 0230 local time at a height of 37000 ft over the Mediterranean Sea about 240 kms from Alexandria (Egypt) and about 390 kms from Cairo.
  
• 66 people on board. 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada. The plane was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew, which included 3 air-marshals. The captain has 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320; the copilot has 2,766.
  
• EgyptAir says the plane’s emergency locator transmitter sent a signal that was received at 4.26am local time, two hours after the last radar contact. But this is being disputed now.
  
• Search and rescue efforts are underway at the site where contact was lost. Greece has joined the search and operation, and France has pledged boats and planes to assist.

What has probably happened?

There are two types of radars basically. The first one, known as primary, uses waves bouncing from the aircraft to show the position of the aircraft on a screen. The secondary radar gives altitude, heading, call sign, altitude change trends, a kind of an ID called a squawk code, aircraft type. This works using a mode S transponder that sends this information live from the aircraft to ground. Generally, when there is a transponder and radio failure, the aircraft continues on its filed flight plan and then commences the approach at the destination at the time nominated on the flight plan. But when the aircraft drops off the primary radar like this, it is much more serious and suggestive of an accident.

Given their altitude, the plane's last reported location, and the glide ratio of the A320, they could not have made it back to land in the event of a power loss. The plane is definitely in the water, intact or otherwise if it has suffered a dual engine failure or some other catastrophic event.

Photo from Reuters twitter account.

[srishiva]

They are reporting it as crashed in news. Really sad that these things are happening frequently and Egyptian airports will be under scrutiny.

How long would the plane glide and wouldn't it be picked up by ground radar while gliding ?

[arunu]

As per TOI article, the plane seems to have crashed in the Mediterranean sea
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/w...w/52343684.cms
EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed in the Mediterranean Sea off the Greek island of Crete early Thursday morning, Egyptian and Greek officials said.

The "possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed," as the plane hasn't landed in any of the nearby airports, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Very sad event. RIP the crew and passangers

[hemanth.anand]

Very sad...Looks like it has crashed down.
Going by the information we have, its a very high chance of being a victim of terrorism

[gm_arun]

Sad News. Lots of flight accidents in the recent years. That too flights missing from radar in this modern era is something fishy.

RIP all the souls in the flight.

Attached the data from www.flightradar24.com

[saket77]

Very unfortunate. Some reports on mirror.co.uk are claiming that it is an 'attack' and the Greek merchant navy has seen 'fire in the sky'.

Rest in peace.

[searchingheaven]

The plane has not yet been confirmed as crashed. It is being considered as a possibility since it has not landed anywhere. But technical issues and terrorism as factor have not been ruled out till now.

Originally Posted by srishiva

How long would the plane glide and wouldn't it be picked up by ground radar while gliding ?

The A320 has a glide ratio of about 17:1 which means that it travels 17 units for every 1 unit loss in altitude. I have done these calculations previously for a dual engine out glide in a B777 and adjusted them for the glide ratio of a A320 dual engine out at 37000 ft.

There are 3 scenarios possible here. If you want the:

• Max time: Descend at 220 knots and cover around 180 kms.
  
• Max distance: Descend at 270 knots and you will cover 191 kms.
  
• Given distance in min. time: This will literally feel like falling out of the sky but if there is an emergency and you just want to land somewhere as soon as possible, you descend at 330 knots and cover around 70 kms.

Originally Posted by saket77

Very unfortunate. Some reports on mirror.co.uk are claiming that it is an 'attack' and the Greek merchant navy has seen 'fire in the sky'.

Unconfirmed reports again which have been proved as false.

EDIT 1: Reports indicating that Greece has declared that area as a no-fly zone.

EDIT 2: Conspiracy theories starting to come up. One claims that it has been 803 days since MH370 has disappeared. This flight was MS804.

[Jeroen]

Very sad. RIP. lets hold all the speculation until we get some facts.

Jeroen

[fordday]

How does the ground based radars work? Doesn't it detect a plane till almost about few hundred meters above ground level?

I failed to understand this. The plane lost communication contact with ground but the radars must be independent of this. Radar must be detecting a gliding powerless plane, unless it blew up at that altitude.

[Skyline_GT]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Very sad...Looks like it has crashed down.
Going by the information we have, its a very high chance of being a victim of terrorism

It still hasn't been confirmed yet as no crash site has been found yet, nor any debris discovered.
RIP to all the passengers and the flight crew.

It's simply astounding how something as big as an airplane can simply disappear in today's times of gps coverage and so much advanced technologies used in airplanes as well as control towers at the airports.
Even if its an act of terrorism/hijacking shouldn't they be able to still trace it's position and/or the flight path it had covered before disappearing?

The eerie co incidence of the number of days since dissappearance of MH370 and the number of EgyptAir (804) is mindboggling.

A slightly bit off topic but ever since the dissapppearance of MH370 that disappeared over two years ago reminds me of the plot of tv series "LOST"

[sid93]

No of flights flying in between those two points is Mind blowing. If it had crashed into sea, isn't it very easy to spot by so many flights flying over the sea at any given time? Just look at the no of flights over the same route ( Pics Attached from FlightRadar24).The Red flight is MS800 flying to same place. Its very fishy how a huge plane can get lost and can be untraceable in technologically developed world.

[Chetan_Rao]

BBC & CNN now reporting wreckage has been located off the Greek coast.

[nowwhat?]

Live updates on Egyptian newspaper Egypt Independent.

A Greek military official says that an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight, reports AP.

The official says the items were found 370 km south-southeast of the island of Crete but still within the Egyptian air-traffic control area. One of the items was oblong, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.

According to AP, the head of Russia's top domestic security agency says the crashed Egyptian jet has apparently been brought down by a terror attack.

Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday that "in all likelihood it was a terror attack."

According to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said in a press conference that "the crash was more likely a terrorist operation and not a technical malfunction."

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos says the EgyptAir flight made abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar shortly after entering Cairo's air traffic control area of responsibility, according to AP.

Kammenos said the aircraft was 10-15 miles inside the Egyptian area and at an altitude of 37,000 feet. He says: "It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360- degree turn toward the right, dropping from 38,000 to 15,000 feet and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet," he said.

[searchingheaven]

Unfortunately, MS804 has crashed. Debris has been located in the Mediterranean sea. French BEA team is leaving for the crash scene now. Maersk Ahram has located the debris and other ships including the Sofia Express(the first responder to the crash scene) are reaching there now. All photos credit to Tarek Wahba, Captain, Maersk Ahram.

EDIT 1: Egypt’s envoy to France has said that Greek authorities have told the Egyptian embassy in Athens that they’ve found “blue and white debris".

EDIT 2: A bomb might have brought down the plane, US officials say.

Uninflated life jacket & other debris





A plane searches for the MS804 a few hours ago.


A close up of the radar showing all other ships moving to the location of the debris.

[mohammedismail]

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

: A bomb might have brought down the plane, US officials say.

If this is true, in today's world when there is so high security, especially in France from where it took off, how can someone by pass the security and carry a bomb into the plane?

This thing really makes me wonder!!