Elysee: France, Egypt vow to work closely over missing Egyptian plane

French President Francois Hollande and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, vowed Thursday to “work closely to establish as soon as possible the circumstances of the disappearance” of Egyptair MS804, the Elysee stated in a press release.

The ill-fated plane disappeared from radar early Thursday morning en route from Paris to Cairo.

Speaking to local radio, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the French government is “in close contact with the Egyptian military and civil authorities.”

“France is ready to participate in the searches,” he said, adding that “no hypothesis can be excluded on the causes of the disappearance.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said his ministry and French Embassy in Cairo are fully mobilized to obtain all information related to the missing flight, an Airbus 320.

The plane was carrying 56 passengers, including one child, two infants, and 10 crew members, the Egyptian airline confirmed on its Twitter account.

The plane, which took off at 11:09 p.m. local time (2109 GMT), was flying at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,280 meters) and was 10 miles (16 km) inside Egyptian airspace when losing contact with the radar at 2:45 a.m. Cairo time (0045 GMT), an official source in the airline said.

According to Egyptair, 15 French nationals were on board, along with 30 Egyptians, two Iraqis, one British, one Belgian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Chadian, one Saudi, one Kuwaiti, one Sudanese and one Canadian.

A toll-free number has been announced for friends and families of the passengers on board.

Source: Xinhua