Greek officials said Thursday that an EgyptAir flight that disappeared over the Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard apparently made two sharp turns then suddenly lost altitude before vanishing from radar, reports USA Today.
Egyptian civil aviation minister Sherif Fathi said the possibility of a terror attack as the cause of the crash of flight MS804 was “stronger” than technical failure.
He said he did not want to jump to conclusions, but said the “possibility of a terror attack is higher than that of a technical error,” according to Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.
Egyptian and Greek authorities said the plane likely went down near the Greek island of Crete.
Greek TV reported two floating orange objects that could be airplane debris were spotted in the ocean 50 miles southeast of the area where the plane vanished from radar about 174 miles off the Egyptian coast. Greece's defense ministry mobilized a search-and-rescue operation.
“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,” said Greek defense minister Panos Kammenos. At the time, the Airbus A-320 had just entered Egyptian airspace.
Greek civil aviation authorities say all appeared fine with the flight until air traffic controllers were preparing to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts. The pilot did not respond to their calls, and the aircraft then vanished from radar.
The French military said a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants was diverted to help in the search for the airliner. Military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron told the Associated Press that the jet is joining the Egypt-led search effort, and the French navy may send another plane and a ship to the zone.
U.S Commander Sixth Fleet is working with the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Greece and the U.S. Defense Attaché in Athens to provide U.S. Navy P-3 Orion support in the search, according to the U.S. Navy.
In Washington, White House aides said President Obama was briefed on the missing plane Thursday morning by his top homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, Lisa Monaco.