Egypt's civil aviation ministry has maintained that it was too early to conclude that the missing EgyptAir flight 804 heading from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board which disappeared from radar early Thursday morning has crashed.
EgyptAir A320 aircraft lost contact with radar above the Mediterranean sea about 280km (175 miles) from the Egyptian seacoast at 2.30 a.m. [local time] as the flight was expected to arrive Cairo airport at 3.15 a.m., reports the Guardian.
EgyptAir said that the plane's emergency devices, possibly an emergency locator transmitter or beacon sent a signal that was received at 4.26am local time, two hours after the last radar contact.
The airline said that the plane was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew- two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three security personnel including two babies and one child.
Among the passengers were 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.
The plane, on its fifth journey of the day, was travelling at 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar.
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The EgyptAir in series of tweets said that the captain has 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320; the copilot has 2,766.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that "no theory can be ruled out" in investigating the disappearance.
There is no detail yet on possible reasons for the plane's disappearance.
A statement from Egypt's civil aviation ministry however, maintained that it was too early to conclude that the missing plane has crashed.
The Egyptian Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail, is at Cairo international airport assessing the situation.
Meanwhile, search and rescue efforts are underway at the site where contact was lost, around 280km (175 miles) north of Egypt's coast.
Greece has joined the search and operation and France has also pledged boats and planes to assist, reports the Guardian.
Egypt Air has also offered toll-free numbers for passengers' relatives-080077770000 from any landline in Egypt and +202 25989320 from any mobile phone or from outside Egypt.