An Egyptair flight with 66 people on board crashed while en route from Paris to Cairo on Thursday, the French president confirmed.
Flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 p.m. Paris time (5:09 p.m. ET) and vanished over the Mediterranean Sea.
French President Francois Hollande told a press conference that the plane had crashed, but said it was too soon to speculate as to the cause.
"No hypothesis can be ruled out," he said.
Officials said the plane had just entered Egyptian airspace and disappeared about 175 miles away from the country's coast.
There were 56 passengers — including three children — along with seven crew and three personal security on board the Airbus A320, Egyptair said. The airline initially had said a total of 69 people were on board but later revised the figure.
Airbus — the maker of the plane — said in a statement that it regretted to confirm that "an A320 operated by Egyptair was lost" over the Mediterranean Sea.
Egyptian and Greek authorities were focusing search efforts in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Greek military confirmed that one of its frigates and two of its aircraft were assisting in the operation about 130 nautical miles south-southeast of the island of Karpathos.
Two helicopters also were on standby on Karpathos, Greek Cmdr. Vasilios Beletsiotis told Cambodian News.
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