66 feared killed as EgyptAir plane crashes off Greece
An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people crashed into the Mediterranean sea on Thursday with possible wreckage spotted off a Greek island, as investigators probed whether it was downed by a bomb.
Egypt’s Aviation Minister said that while it was too soon to say why the Airbus A320 had vanished, “a terrorist” attack would be a more likely scenario than a technical failure.
Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the plane had fallen 22,000 feet and swerved sharply twice in Egyptian airspace before it disappeared from the radar screens.
The incident raised fears of a repeat of the bombing of a Russian passenger plane by the Islamic State jihadist group over Egypt last October, which killed all 224 people on board.
A Greek military spokesman said an Egypt C-130 plane had spotted floating objects that could be debris from the crash, and ships were en route to investigate.
The jet was flying from Paris to Cairo when it disappeared, without sending a distress signal.
French President Francois Hollande confirmed that the plane had “crashed”, and Paris said its accident department had opened a probe.
Cairo’s state prosecutor also ordered an investigation into the incident, a statement said, signalling suspicion that foul play could have caused the crash.
In its first air strike yesterday against IS since the string of deadly Paris attacks claimed by the jihadist group, Read more
Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has stoked a controversy by saying that Paris terror attacks were the result Read more
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Google’s India-born CEO Sundar Pichai are among over 50 global Read more
US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande pressed Russia on Tuesday to focus its attacks in Syria on Read more
