What We Know So Far About The Disappearance Of MS804

What We Know So Far About The Disappearance Of MS804

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About an hour ago it was first reported that MS804, an EgyptAir flight between Paris and Cairo, went missing.

MS804-Lost-Radar
Where radar contact was lost, per flightradar24

Obviously there’s a lot of information (and misinformation) out there, and we’ll likely find out a lot more over the coming hours and days. There’s a natural desire to know as much about these incidents as quickly as possible, which is why they tend to turn into 24/7 news cycles.

With that in mind, I figured I’d share the basic details we know so far (of course these are subject to change, given that they’re still in the early stages of the investigation):

  • The flight was operated by a 12 year old Airbus A320, with tail number SU-GCC
  • According to EgyptAir, the flight had 10 crew members and 59 passengers (that’s a lot of crew members for an A320, even when you include the pilots, though perhaps there were some crew flying as passengers)
  • The flight disappeared from radar at ~37,000 feet, under 200 miles off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, over the Mediterranean Sea; that was 10 miles after entering Egyptian airspace (which covers part of the Mediteranean)
  • The flight disappeared from radar at 2:45AM in Cairo, and it was over two hours until EgyptAir made a public statement about the flight; it has now been about three hours since the disappearance occurred
  • Weather enroute was excellent, and the flight’s route was completely normal until it disappeared from radar

I won’t be covering the happenings of MS804 in great detail since I’m not an expert and also am not careful enough with my words to do so, but I figured I’d at least recap those very basic details, as people first start to hear about this disappearance.

For up to the minute coverage on MS804, I highly recommend following @thatjohn and @AirlineFlyer on Twitter, as they both do a fantastic job covering these sorts of incidents. They stick to the facts and leave out the sensationalism, so you can bet I’ll be glued to their Twitter feeds over the coming days. I’d also recommend following @EgyptAir.

Again, my thoughts with those aboard, as well as their families…

Conversations (21)
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  1. Will Guest

    Lucky,
    When I got back home I went to find out what happened. I looked online, only to see this New York Times article. Here it is: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/world/middleeast/egyptair-flight-804.html?_r=0
    It really gives a good explanation of what happened.

  2. matt Guest

    @ Neil S.

    The reason for "self-righteous fool" comment is that when you ascribe the possible act of a bomb to basically all practitioners of "Islam", you suggest that there is something inherently amiss in a religion that leads to these terrorist acts. To do so, is self-righteous in my estimate. "Christians" have as much their fair share of extremists as do "Islam" followers. Perhaps use the term "Islamic extremists" instead of "Islam"???

  3. Neil S. Guest

    Self-righteous fool? Huh? With the media all reporting it was likely a bomb, it's not exactly a crazy leap to start figuring out who would have planted it.

  4. john t cocktosin Guest

    What's the over / under on this being related to islam?

    1. matt Guest

      @ John T Cock

      What is the over and under you are a self righteous fool?

  5. Kent Guest

    @Samantha: I sincerely doubt an investigator is going to discuss such things on a blog.....

  6. Samantha Guest

    Curious to hear from Jared. I know he is probably there or on the way there as part of the investigation....

  7. Claus Guest

    @Farnorth: We will know more after the investigation.

  8. Farnorthtrader Guest

    @Claus, using a technical term like probability theory does not make it anything but speculation unless you actually have some basis for your probabilities, which you clearly do not. The plane took off from Paris, so extraordinarily low probability that a bomb was planted on the plane in Egypt. The plane banked sharply left, then circled 360 degrees right before it fell below radar, so a low probability that there was any bomb at all....

    @Claus, using a technical term like probability theory does not make it anything but speculation unless you actually have some basis for your probabilities, which you clearly do not. The plane took off from Paris, so extraordinarily low probability that a bomb was planted on the plane in Egypt. The plane banked sharply left, then circled 360 degrees right before it fell below radar, so a low probability that there was any bomb at all. Finally, no evidence in regard to who the target might have been gives no credence to probability in this regard.
    Just using a scientific term may impress the uneducated, but it does nothing to further your case that this was anything but speculation and an attempt to smear Egyptians.

  9. Claus Guest

    @ Jack: No, it's probability theory. And it has nothing to do with race, but with politics and religion.

  10. Claus Guest

    @Neil: Yes, that's human nature

  11. Neil S. Guest

    @Claus - LOLOL. It's terrible to speculate, so here's my clueless speculation. This is why Al Gore invented the Interwebs!!

  12. Olivier Guest

    Here are some of the information we get from the French media :

    - The plane left from Terminal 1 in Roissy CDG
    - 7 crew members and 3 security officers
    - 56 passengers included 2 babies and 1 boy (nationalities present in the plane are 30 Egyptians, 15 Frenchs, 1 British, 1 Canadian, 1 Belg, 1 Portuguese, 1 Algerian, 1 Sudanese, 1 Chadians, 2 Iraqi, 1 Sudanese and 1 Kuwaiti)
    -...

    Here are some of the information we get from the French media :

    - The plane left from Terminal 1 in Roissy CDG
    - 7 crew members and 3 security officers
    - 56 passengers included 2 babies and 1 boy (nationalities present in the plane are 30 Egyptians, 15 Frenchs, 1 British, 1 Canadian, 1 Belg, 1 Portuguese, 1 Algerian, 1 Sudanese, 1 Chadians, 2 Iraqi, 1 Sudanese and 1 Kuwaiti)
    - The plane crashed near the Greek island of Karpathos between Rhodes and the Island of Crete two very touristic place in this Area.
    - Investigation are ongoing in Roissy Terminal 1 to check if they were a security breach...

  13. Jack Guest

    @Claus you start out saying its "completely useless to speculate" then you go on to speculate that:
    1- it was a bomb.
    2- the bomb was planted in Egypt.
    3- France was the target.

    Why not the other way around? It's because you're racist that's why.

  14. Claus Guest

    Of course it is completely useless to speculate, but still, my guess is also a bomb that had already been loaded in Cairo on the outbound. Maybe the original intent was to detonate it over France/Paris Airport.

  15. wowwee Guest

    shot down. obvious. check out the news in a few hours.

    1. matt Guest

      @wowowee...I doubt it was shot down over the Mediterranean. The last I heard ISIS or Al Queda had not developed warships or warplanes to execute something like that over a large body of water. My guess it was a bomb on the plane.

  16. Sarah Guest

    Hey @matt that is so insensitive of you. It literally hasn't even been a few hours since the disappearance and you already want to know about flight discounts. Why don't you wait a while. All in good time!!

    1. matt Guest

      I am sorry if I offended you. I am just trying to see the positive in these situations!

  17. matt Guest

    Lucky, Could you write on the fantastic fare savings opportunities that happen when these major carriers have an air disaster like this???

  18. Oscar Gonzalez Guest

    According to Flightradar24, plane SU-GCC landed at 03:06 in Cairo. Is that a glitch?

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The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Will Guest

Lucky, When I got back home I went to find out what happened. I looked online, only to see this New York Times article. Here it is: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/world/middleeast/egyptair-flight-804.html?_r=0 It really gives a good explanation of what happened.

0
matt Guest

@ Neil S. The reason for "self-righteous fool" comment is that when you ascribe the possible act of a bomb to basically all practitioners of "Islam", you suggest that there is something inherently amiss in a religion that leads to these terrorist acts. To do so, is self-righteous in my estimate. "Christians" have as much their fair share of extremists as do "Islam" followers. Perhaps use the term "Islamic extremists" instead of "Islam"???

0
Neil S. Guest

Self-righteous fool? Huh? With the media all reporting it was likely a bomb, it's not exactly a crazy leap to start figuring out who would have planted it.

0
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