EgyptAir says flight from Paris to Cairo missing

[Bwana]

Hmmm

National carrier EgyptAir said a plane carrying 69 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo had gone missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea.

"An official source at EgyptAir stated that Flight MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar," the airline said on its official Twitter account.

Later Tweets by EgyptAir said the plane, which was travelling at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,280 metres), disappeared soon after entering Egyptian airspace. The aircraft was carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew.

According to flightradar24.com, the plane was an Airbus A320 and its last known position was above the Mediterranean Sea.

An Airbus A321 operated by Russia's Metrojet crashed in the Sinai in 31 October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. Russia and Western governments have said the plane was likely brought down by a bomb, and the Islamic State militant group said it had smuggled an explosive on board.

Reuters reported in January that an EgyptAir mechanic, whose cousin joined Islamic State in Syria, is suspected of planting the bomb, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In March, an EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus by a man with what authorities said was a fake suicide belt. He was arrested after giving himself up.

France's aviation authority could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Lin Noueihad, Lincoln Feast, Siva Govindasamy; Editing by Paul Tait and Bill Tarrant.)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/...z&ocid=UE07DHP

[Chief Roundup]

Several outlets are now reporting that they believe this is an act of terror.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

Several outlets are now reporting that they believe this is an act of terror.

Egypt was saying that from the get go. Last I saw U.S. Officials were saying it was a bomb.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

The glide ratio on a passenger liner is pretty much shit. If the engines go out, you're talking a matter of minutes.

It's not a Cessna; heavies don't want to stay in the air. Once the thrust on those goes out, they pretty much drop like a rock.

EDIT: Well I'll be damned, I'm seeing some stuff that says the glide ratio for an A320 is far better than I realized; somewhere in the neighborhood of 20/1. So really, if the plane was under control still, it could've glided for around 140 miles from that altitude in the event of a complete engine failure.

So you've gotta think that it's more likely that he lost flight control and it nosed over. Otherwise I would think he would have had much more than 10 minutes.

EDIT: The best glide speed for an A320 appears to be somewhere in the 250 mph range so you're probably looking at about 25 minutes if the pilot did everything right. It wouldn't be much worse than that so long as he just kept the wings level and didn't try to pitch up. 20 minutes-ish at worst.

I guess that's another possibility; he could've really screwed up and pitched up when he lost power. If he did that, he'd have stalled the plan and made recovery into a glide damn near impossible. Even if he did recover, he'd have bled off thousands of feet in altitude.

From what I have heard the maneuvers the plane made would be indicative of compensating for a flat spin. Now whether that has to happen manually or if the computers would do that I don't know. The part about the Pilots going silent for 10 minutes leads me to believe they were without power...very strange

[Predarat]

My $$$ is on those damn Methodists.

[petegz28]

A senior U.S. Intelligence official familiar with the U.S.'s capabilities in the region told NBC News that infrared and multi-spectral imagers suggest an explosion occurred on the flight. He reaffirmed that a cause of the crash remains unknown, and Egyptian officials have not commented on any possible blast.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/egy...-radar-n576541

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Have you ever read the BB transcript for Air France 447? It was a plane that went down in the ocean while cruising. It's pretty bizarre.



http://www.popularmechanics.com/flig...e-447-6611877/

Someone should shoot that co-pilot.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by petegz28

A senior U.S. Intelligence official familiar with the U.S.'s capabilities in the region told NBC News that infrared and multi-spectral imagers suggest an explosion occurred on the flight. He reaffirmed that a cause of the crash remains unknown, and Egyptian officials have not commented on any possible blast.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/egy...-radar-n576541

I read that the plane was in Eritrea and Tunisia prior to going to Paris. I wonder if something was planted on it at one of those airports. I suspect that those airports would be a much easier infiltration than Paris.

Oh, and it sounds like it had also stopped in Cairo before going to Paris. That's probably another high-risk area if you've got nutcase air maintenance people.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I read that the plane was in Eritrea and Tunisia prior to going to Paris. I wonder if something was planted on it at one of those airports. I suspect that those airports would be a much easier infiltration than Paris.

Agreed. And the part that I find kinda spooky is the plane went as soon as it entered Egyptian air space. I know there are multiple ways to trigger a bomb, timers, altimeters, remote by someone on board, etc.

Imagine if they had a GPS based triggering device that would trigger the bomb at the precise position they wanted and would be more effective than timers or altimeters???

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by petegz28

From what I have heard the maneuvers the plane made would be indicative of compensating for a flat spin. Now whether that has to happen manually or if the computers would do that I don't know. The part about the Pilots going silent for 10 minutes leads me to believe they were without power...very strange

How in the shit would you put a passenger airliner in a flat spin? I don't suppose it's impossible, but you're essentially talking about a simultaneous stall across all flight surfaces. That's not very easy to do on purpose in a light plane, let alone on accident in a big one with a hell of a lot more thrust and less maneuverability (not to mention all the computer redundancies that should keep you from being able to do anything quite that stupid or that far beyond the flight envelope).

That or the damn vertical stabilizer broke off.

I just don't see it.

Terrorism or a sudden mechanical problem combined with pilot error seems to be the most likely scenarios.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by theelusiveeightrop

Not drunk. Seeing patients. Other views in DC.

My dentist is Arab and I think Muslim.

Thoughts?

[LiveSteam]

Originally Posted by lewdog

My dentist is Arab and I think Muslim.

Thoughts?

Your teeth will go KABOOM. Probably set off by a chicken bone

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by LiveSteam

Your teeth will go KABOOM. Probably set off by a chicken bone

He's very nice and likes to talk American sports.

Genuine or cover up?

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

How in the shit would you put a passenger airliner in a flat spin? I don't suppose it's impossible, but you're essentially talking about a simultaneous stall across all flight surfaces. That's not very easy to do on purpose in a light plane, let alone on accident in a big one with a hell of a lot more thrust and less maneuverability (not to mention all the computer redundancies that should keep you from being able to do anything quite that stupid or that far beyond the flight envelope).

That or the damn vertical stabilizer broke off.

I just don't see it.

Terrorism or a sudden mechanical problem combined with pilot error seems to be the most likely scenarios.

I think you're misunderstanding. The guy was saying whatever happened caused the plane to go into a flat spin and he is speculating based on the turns the plane made. He said that us typical to compensate for a flat spin.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by lewdog

He's very nice and likes to talk American sports.

Genuine or cover up?

I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but even so you should consider making him sign an agreement to never handcuff you to the steering wheel of a car bomb while you're anesthetized. It's only prudent.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Dylan

Arabic media outlets report sources in EgyptAir confirm the plane crashed into the sea.

Egyptian rescue teams are reportedly working with Greece to locate the plane.

Passengers' nationalities: Mostly were from Egypt, others passengers from France, U.K. Saudi Arabia, Iraq



Edit: EgyptAir: passengers' nationalities are as follows:

- 15 French
- 30 Egyptian
- 1 British
- 1 Belgium
- 2 Iraqis
- 1 Kuwaiti
- 1 Saudi

No offense intended but...can you imagine how much bad it must have smelled on that plane?