As to what has happened. We have the Associated Press quoting egyptian authorities saying the plane has crashed. However, there is not confirmation specifically to that. There have been various reports. Interestingly, this is an area that is heavily covered by radar from a multitude of Different Countries in the region. So even if egypt radar or egyptairs radar was not working properly, it would have been corroborated by multiple different sources in that area. Lets go to our aviation specialist with nbc news, tom costello. Tom, with a long good morning to you, i know youve been up following this for quite some time. Before the break im sorry, tom, weve just lost, well get him back in just a moment. Lets go to greg feith, a former ntsb investigator. I know that tom was making the point. Similarities to this crash with that, again, if it is a crash, with that of the egyptair flight over the Sinai Peninsula which crashed killing many, many onboard. Over 200, and that was on october 31st of this last year. Talk about the similarities there and if you think there are some parallels. When you look at it, alex, both airplanes were in the cruise phase of flight. That is the lowest workload for flight crew members. Its basically monitoring systems. The airplane is being operated on autopilot. So there isnt really a lot going on with the airplane from a dynamic standpoint if you will. They were both in radar coverage. There had been normal communications. And then of course both airplanes suddenly disappeared or dropped off radar, and all twoway Radio Communications were abruptly lost with both aircraft. Now, when you look at metrojet and you see the wreckage pattern, the tail had been separated and was well removed from the main wreckage, it will be interesting to see when they do find this debris, what kind of wreckage path they have with this because that could also indicate that there was some sort of inflight explosion possibly due to an explosive device put on the airplane. Okay. We want to alert everyone that we are getting an official statement. It should be coming to us in about 25 minutes or so at 4 30 a. M. This will be from the French Foreign minister, who we understand has briefed families there. We should also note there were 15 french nationals on board this plane, which had 66 souls onboard, the majority of whom were egyptian. 30 of those passengers were egyptian. It had a cabin crew of seven with a total of 66 on board. Interestingly also, three egyptair security personnel. Greg, what do you know about the implementation of security personnel . Is that equivalent to what we have here in the states, air marshals . Are they one and the same throughout the world . They are equivalent, alex. I think egypt has ramped up there security because of these past events, and given the environment that were operating in especially in that part of the world, i think egypt was trying to increase security. And that is probably the reason why they had three security personnel. We dont know how or where they were sitting in the airplane. The only other reason to have security personnel like we do here in the United States is if we are transporting some sort of prisoner or someone of interest. So it could have been under scrutiny, but most likely this was similar to our federal air marshals flying on this flight. Okay. So they have to check the passenger manifest. Again, these passengers, 56 of whom were not affiliated with the airline as in security or crew members although we should note there was one child and two infants, so youre pretty much looking at 53 passengers. There are a number from the middle east. We should say two iraqis, one kuwaiti, one saudi, one sudanese, one algerian as well. How long does it take to do background checks of the passengers onboard a flight under circumstances like this . Thats a very good question, alex. Here in the United States, of course, we have very good security through dhs and tsa. And so the nofly list and background checks can be done rather expeditiously. The egyptians, its obvious that, you know, weve seen some past events where that kind of processing and checking and background checking has been lacking. Whether theyve ramped that up since last year or not or at least the last two years is of interest. Im sure that the process has been started, and we will probably have some information by, you know, probably in the next 24 hours. The thing thats curious to me is that the egyptians immediately, almost immediately after the disappearance of the airplane and the fact that they were starting this investigation, looking for wreckage, is that they declared all of the cargo on the airplane relatively benign, that there was no suspicious cargo. Well, first off, if there was suspicious cargo, they should have recognized it before the airplane took off. But, two, for them to come out and say that there was nothing in the cargo, that was kind of it was kind of an outofplace statement this early without anything other than a manifest because while the manifest says that you may have been carrying 600 boxes of blue jeans, you dont know what was in those 600 boxes necessarily. They could have said blue jeans, and it could have been Something Else like 6,000 lithium batteries that were undeclared. Weve seen that where weve had undeclared Hazardous Materials put in boxes that werent properly marked because the shipper didnt want to pay the exorbitant fees to ship Hazardous Materials, or there could have been some nefarious stuff in the cargo. So i was kind of taken aback that they actually came out that early and said there was nothing wrong with the cargo. Well, and again we want to make sure that people know that is being attributed to the officials there at egyptair, who are saying that at this point. But youre right. It does sound rather premature to have done so. And also youre right, greg, you make the point that if there were anything suspicious, that particular item ought to have been removed from the plane before takeoff. Lets bring in nbcs tom costello. He is our aviation expert here at the network. Tom, youve been following this all night lo. 37,000 feet. That is the point at which, in that altitude, this plane disappeared. What does that tell you because that seems entirely unique. Reporter yes. You know, we dont want to jump to conclusions, but as greg and i were discussing, 37,000 feet is cruise altitude. And almost certainly the plane was on autopilot. This was an airbus a320. It was built in 2003. Very modern aircraft with all of the updates you would imagine given the fact that it is, of course, built in france and being flown by egyptair, and we believe the maintenance done in france as well. A couple of other factoids here. The pilot had 6,100 hours of flying time. Thats very respectable. The first officer had about 27 hours of flying time, again respectable. The plane last heard from at about 2 30 a. M. Local time, but there m been no distress call whatsoever. And it had just been we believe the plane had been serviced in some fashion on wednesday, so yesterday. We dont know the extent of that service that might have been performed on the plane, but thats normal. The planes are constantly being checked and rechecked and maybe they do some sort of a minor tweak here and there before you go in for a major overhaul. We believe that this was some sort of a standard routine type of service on the plane. And as you mentioned, alex, this is a very heavily traveled route between paris and cairo, and its going over some of the most congested airspace in the world. Very heavily traveled, and its full the Mediterranean Sea is full of various navys and their radar equipment and the countries and their radar equipment. I mean there should be no shortage of imagery of this plane if, in fact, it just if, in fact, there was a sign of it my point being. In other words, it appears this plane literally just went off the radar at 37,000 feet, and that really only happens in the event of a cataclysmic failure and almost always its an explosion because, as weve said, planes simply generally dont come apart at 37,000 feet given the very modern nature of the composite materials used in constructing a plane. And we are in that neighborhood, unfortunately, that neighborhood in the world where this is all too commonplace, using explosives to either target, take down planes, or else to target civilians. A couple points i want to follow up with you, tom. The first being that because of the densely populated area of those waters, we should note that greece has joined the investigation. They have also joined the search and hopefully rescue. We know that they have sent a c130 plane. They also have a frigate ship in addition to a c130 on route to replace the one in the air for some time now, looking for any signs. It has been dark when this accident happened. That can certainly hamper recovery efforts. It should be light now, though, as were looking at its 10 10 in the morning there cairo time. But another point to bring up with you, tom, is this 37,000 feet in height. There comes to mind the recollection of the air france flight, the doomed one that went from Rio De Janeiro to brazil june 1st of 2009. That is a flight that crashed into the atlantic ocean, to the very depths of that ocean as you remember. It took two years for any signs of the official black boxes, recovery boxes, flight recorder data boxes to be recovered because of the depth of the ocean floor where that crashed. But in that case, despite being very High Altitude as well, there was at least, once they were able to recover the information, there was a glimmer, at least a partial conversation. They knew they were in trouble, and it was a purely mechanical issue. Reporter thats right. So a couple of points. Boy, you have a good memory on aircraft aviation things. You should be covering this as well. I listen to you, my friend. Thats what i do. Reporter a couple of points here. First of all, on air france 447, this plane was in an airspace that was not covered by radar. So there was no radar track. They didnt know what happened to the plane. It was transmitting data, which is the automated burst of information really pertaining to the technical aspects and performance of the plane, transmitted to airbus headquarters in toulouse, france. Thats how they were able to get a feeling for where this plane might have gone down, were talking about air france 447. But they didnt know the trajectory of the plane and how it was lost. They didnt know that right away. Not until they got the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, the black boxes from the bottom of the sea, were they able tody certain that there had been chaos and confusion in the cockpit. Different scenario, i believe, than what were looking at today because there is good radar traffic over the Mediterranean Sea, there are plenty of radars watching that plane. And it just disappeared, right . Its not as if the plane had a gradual, slow decline to the ocean surface, we believe. It just disappeared. That speaks to the notion of the possibility of a bomb, and thats why weve been reiterating that. So now all of those assets that are on the Mediterranean Sea, all those navys are going to be listening for the pingers of the underwater pingers that are attached to the flight dalt recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, hoping that they can hone in on those signals. Lets make sure people are aware that, again, there was some confusion earlier, tom, and there were reports that there had been pingers located, at least the sound of them, and that has since been retracted. So we should make clear that we dont have pingers at this point. In terms of official information, lets all stand by as i go to london where nbcs Kelly Cobiella is standing by. Kelly has heard from the french aviation minister. Kelly, what have they told families and loved ones of those 15 that were onboard this flight . Reporter well, theyre sending their condolences obviously alex ate this point. We dont know what happened at this point, but the assumption is it didnt end well. So theyre sending their condolences and support to the families. 15 french nationals on that plane. And also sending their support to egyptian officials, offering any sort of search and rescue help that they might need from the french. They also mentioned the transport minister said that about those three Security Officials onboard, remember we were told there were 10 crew members onboard, three of them Security Officials. Transport minister saying this is normal operating practice. Probably something that the french dont like to talk about openly, obviously matters of security onboard an airline. This is not something that theyre going to advertise, but the transport minister saying this was normal, normal practice. And so to sum up, essentially the french offering their support to egyptians, saying theyre cooperating with the Egyptian Government and offering any sort of air or sea support they might need in searching for this missing plane. Alex. Okay. Kelly cobiella, thank you for the latest official word that is coming from france. Again, relative to those 15 onboard this doomed flight, egyptair flight 804. It took off from Charles De Gaulle in paris, bound for cairo, egypt. Were going to take a short break everyone. On the other side, were going to get details about this airbus a320. It is a workhorse of a plane, commonly used here domestically throughout the United States, flout the world of course. It is french manufactured. Were going to get some details on the plane and its capacity for passengers and the type of technology it holds onboard. Well do that after a short break. Stay with us here on msnbc. In no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works. In one week. With the. Fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and. Even deep wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. Welcome back, everyone. At 18 past the hour, 4 00 a. M. Here on the east coast, we are still discussing the egyptair flight 804 disappearance over the Mediterranean Sea. Just shy of the shoreline of egypt there. This is a flight that was bound from Charles De Gaulle paris airport, going to cairo. And it happened about six and a half hours ago. It simply disappeared from radar at a height of 37,000 feet at that altitude. Lets bring in msnbcs cal perry right now. Cal is going to talk about the Bigger Picture here. Were talking about an area of the world that is just a hotbed. I mean theres really no other way to describe it. And egypt itself has been besieged with some Airline Problems in this last year. An area in total flux, right . Take you back to the last halloween, october of last year. There was that metrojet. Youll remember isis was able to bring that out of the sky with an explosion using just a soda can packed with explosives. Two months ago, egyptair, the same airline had a disgruntled engineer employee on the airline in Sharm El Sheikh airport. He was able to hijack a plane and take it to cypress. So there have been some consistent security lapses both in egypt and with this particular airline, certainly for authorities in paris thats going to be where they start this investigation. Absolutely. You think about paris, cal. Look at paris. It was the site of the horrible attacks at the end of last year. Charlie hebdo early in the year prior to that. And then brussels right on the heels of that, in an art. Security was already heightened at paris airport at l after the brussels attacks and remained at that level and was heightened today when this flight left paris. Its the things that we take for granted that people go after. Certainly isis, in their magazine where we saw the picture of that can, this is what they said theyre going to do. That theyre going to go after the things that people rely on, that they take for granted. Air travel first among those lists. Were going to see emergency government meetings in france today. Well see emergency government meetings in egypt. That is what we are going to be looking at in the next 24 hours as this unfolds. We should say we do not know what has brought down this plane. We dont know if its mechanical failure in a cataclysmic way. We dont know if it is a bomb. But the fact that we are discussing isis, it gives them a level of credibility because were attributing to them even the possibility, which plays right into their hands. And its indicative of whats happening in that region. When you look at that map of where that flight was headed, you have libya to the west, and to the east you have countries like syria that are in total chaos. You have a refugee situation unfolding in those very waters of almost biblical proportions. So its amazing how this story is sort of bridging two continents. Unfortunately, the reality is this is what investigators are going to be looking at because it is this part of the world. Absolutely. Anthony roman is joining us as well. Anthony here in the studio. Anthony, we should tell people you are a licensed commercial pilot. You also teach aviation, and you have your own company that deals with all sorts of aviatio aviationrelated things. My question to is this a320 plane. I described it earlier as being a work horse. Theres probably no one who flies in the United States frequently who hasnt flown on an a320. Its such a prevalent plane throughout all sorts of airlines. Talk about its capacity for distance, the number of passengers it can hold and the type of technology onboard that is very advanced, radar and the like. I mean this is a terrific plane despite the fact that this particular plane was manufactured in 2003. The a320 is a technological wonder, alex. It is a fully computerized fly by wire plane. What do we mean by that . Simply what we mean is that the pilots Flight Controls are not mechanically linked to the Flight Control surfaces on the wing and the elevator, the small wing on the back of the plane that cause the airplane to go up and down and, on the wing, left and right. They are connected to Flight Computers. There are actually ten or so primary and backup Flight Computers that interpret the pilots inputs to ensure that the pilot is flying the plane correctly. So the computers are actually interpreting that information, transferring the data to the Flight Control surfaces. If they fall within the parameters of the computer code. Unlike mechanical linkage plane, a boeing aircraft, for example, thats fly by wire has a backup system with mechanical linkage as well. The airbus does not have that. Its quite a capable airplane, but it has had some problems in the past. And one of those problems can result in a catastrophe air frame failure. That includes these two mechanical linkages that are called iservos. They are basically small rods with an eye type of hook in the back of them that connects a motor to the elevator in the back of the plane. And the elevator is at the back of the small wing, and it allows the airplane to go up and down. All right. So that means there is one thing that could contribute, as youre saying, to a catastrophic incident like this. But overall, this again is a workhorse and a technologically tremendously advanced plane. Thats right. Anthony roman, thank you very much. Well come back to you after a very short break on msnbc. Well continue on the other side our coverage of this breaking news of the disappearance of egyptair flight 804 over the mediterranean, bound to cairo from paris. Welcome back, everyone. As we approach the bottom of the hour here on msnbc with this breaking coverage, we continue to follow the disappearance of egyptair flight 804. It departed from paris Charles De Gaulle airport. It was bound for cairo and disappeared ten to 15 minutes before its scheduled arrival time. It did take off about 15 minutes late local time there in paris. That was at 11 09 p. M. That would be 5 09 p. M. Here eastern time. It has been about well, were approaching seven hours since that plane disappeared from radar at an altitude of 37,000 feet. It happened over the mediterranean, about 160 kilometers just north of the shoreline there in the waters specifically between greece and egypt. Greece is assisting in the investigation and in the hopeful recovery of the plane, of any passengers onboard. There have been some unconfirmed reports about it being designated as a crash. That was attributed to the Associated Press. They were quoting egyptian air officials. However, that has been retracted at this point until we know further. Lets go to msnbcs cal perry. Lets talk about this flight 37,000 feet in an area that has been known to have a lot of aviation issues, particularly of late. Egyptair not two months ago was dealing with a disgruntled employee. Yeah, he actually hijacked the aircraft, managed to get it to cypress, this is also an area of the world where boats are plucking people out of the water. This is where we have seen this refugee crisis unfolding. Weve got a graphic here coming from marinetraffic. Com. They have sort of labeled themselves the lead erd of marine traffic tracking. This is now youre seeing boats descending on this area where authorities believe this plane could have ended up. Again, theyre going by the last known communication between the plane and a control tower that we now know was in greece. That was the last time this plane was checked through. These are boats that are now sort of descending again on this area of the mediterranean. We understand it to be about 250 kilometers from the shore. Does it make sense that its a multinational effort . I mean certainly we have egypt playing a role in this and greece at this point. 3wu given the density youre talking about . Absolutely. For security reasons the countries that surround the mediterranean are going to have a great deal of interest not only in this search but making sure that other nations navies and other nations air forces are not encroaching on their territory. The israelis, for example, have already offered their help in this search and rescue operation. Probably more of a symbolic offer frankly, but it gives you an idea of the neighborhood were talking about, a place where hopefully theres also a lot of secondary military radar systems. Yeah. Okay. Stand by if you will, please, cal perry. Thank you for that. Lets go to msnbcs tom costello, our resident aviation expert here at nbc news. Tom, 37,000 foot altitude. This plane just goes off the radar. Is there a plausible explanation other than something catastrophic, a crash, potentially an explosion onboard, which, again, could be something just mechanical, correct . Reporter listen, i think that there are really, at this hour, and lets preface our comments by saying this is all very early. But there are two leading theories at this point, and its the same leading theories that we were dealing with with the metrojet crash over the sinai. And that is, number one, a catastrophic breakup involving the aircraft because it literally suffers a fracture of the hull, right . Theres metal fatigue or composite fatigue, and the plane comes apart at altitude. Thats highly unlikely given the fact that this is a relatively new plane. It came off the line in 2003. Its an airbus a320, a workhorse plane. Its described as one of the safest planes flying today. As you probably heard just a moment ago, 6,600 of these are in service right now around the world. And it has a record of safety that is considered on a par with the boeing 777. This is a very wellconstructed aircraft. Needless to say or nonetheless, that is still one theory. The second theory, a leading theory, would have to be the possibility of an inflight explosion caused by some sort of an explosive device. And this is the same conversation we were having on october 31st and november 1st and 2nd following the metrojet crash over the sinai when another plane suddenly went off the radar. And same circumstances, and it was later determined by the investigators that, in fact, it was that explosive device packed into that soda can. So i think at this early hour, these are the leading theories. Thats not to say that Something Else couldnt develop. Its not to say there might not be some other explanation. But when youre talking about the realm of pockets and likelihoods, given what we know about aviation, which, by the way, you know, aviation is the safest mode of transportation today, period, flat. Theres no other mode that even compares. So what we know about aviation and that plane in particular leads us to believe these are the most likely scenarios. And given the neighborhood, give the fact that this country, egypt, and paris, france, are both at war with isis. Given isis track record and al qaeda for that matter, that has to be a leading theory at this hour. Tom, you mentioned the soda can which was the culprit in the metrojet being brought down on halloween there over the Sinai Peninsula. And were taking a look right now. Explain to us what were seeing there. And if you would agree with the speculation that its somewhat premature for egypt air officials to have already declared the cargo manifest cleared. I mean when youre luking at a soda can, you know reporter exactly. I was also concerned by that comment that the cargo manifest was cleared. Listen, maybe the manifest was cleared. Maybe it looked benign as greg feith mentioned, but that doesnt mean that somebody didnt smuggle something into the cargo hold, and it may have been a soda or a soda can that was packed with explosives. I mean thats in the realm of pocket here. We know that theyve targeted planes in the past. But lets go back to the photograph, and this is the device that isis in the sinai claims brought down that metrojet liner, and that can, you may recall, had a cut right across the middle of it where they soldered it. They packed it full of, we believe, plastic explosives, and then they soldered it closed. And then on the right, you have the detonators. And according to the isis and the sinai propaganda and, again, russian investigators also determined this was an explosive device this is what brought down metrojet. That small of an explosive device brought down a modern jet airliner. Yeah. Reporter it packs a tremendous punch. Now, that plane recall metrojet liner was not cruising at 37,000 feet. It was on a climbout out of Sharm El Sheikh. So at 37,000 feet, when youre traveling at that kind of a speed and at that altitude, it would be a horrific, sudden, just coming apart of the plane. No time for them to issue any sort of a distress signal or a mayday whatsoever. You know what is extraordinary to think about is just the logistics of putting a bomb like that together. You mentioned it had to be packed with some sort of a plastic explosive, and yet it is soldered to together. I mean that is the heat putting that whole thing together. You know, some people look at what isis has been capable of doing, and theyll be attributed with rather rudimentary tactics at times. But that looks actually quite sophisticated to literally pull that off. Reporter well, i dont know. I got to tell you i think that, you know, a Smart High School kid with the right stuff could do Something Like that, and there is no shortage of plastic explosives there in the middle east and in the sinai and in that region of the world. These are people who are spending their lives, as you know, dedicated to bringing down aircraft or killing people, and they have the internet at their disposal to learn how to do it. I often think to myself, weve been so lucky that we havent lost more planes or buses or trains or whatever the case may be. I do think its important for us to remember, however, that this is a stated goal of isis and al qaeda, and theyve shown that they are determined to bring down an aircraft. Why . Because its a highvalue target, and it instills fear, and it causes economic damage as well. So they hit three key options for them. And then of course targeting their enemies, and that could be in theory france or egypt. Again, you know, i want to stress, because if youre just joining this conversation, you may have missed the last few hours in which weve talked about automobile the possibilities involving what might have happened to this plane. Were talking about at this point what has to be a leading theory. Its not the only theory, but it has to be a leading theory in part because of the neighborhood and the track record of isis and other groups. Yeah. And, tom, just to clarify, weather at the time seemed to be clear, correct . Granted this was what we call here like a red eye flight. It left very, very late. After 11 00 p. M. Local time in paris. It was scheduled to land around 3 00 a. M. At the cairo airport. Its flying in the dark, but weather doesnt seem to be a factor . You know, at 37,000 feet, its pretty rare that youre going to have a serious problem with weather at 37,000 feet. I mean, you know, even in the midwest here where we have the terrible thunderstorms and tornadoes and whatnot in the middle of the country, usually planes can divert around bad weather. Theres nothing to suggest that there was anything of any that could cause any problems at that time early this morning at 2 30 or so in the morning. Tom costello, thank you very much for that. Were going to take a short break, pay a few bills on msnbc as we continue with our broadcasting and the disappearance of egyptair flight 804, which disappeared now coming up on seven hours ago, somewhere just shy of the shoreline there in egypt. It was bound for cairo, having taken off about three and a half hours earlier from paris, france. Well be right back. Stay with us. Incredible bladder protection now comes with an incredible double your money back guarantee. Always discreet is for bladder leaks and its drier than poise. Try it, love it or get double your money back. Always discreet. When yarent moving in the right direction, can be a burden. But what if you could wake up to lower blood sugar . Imagine loving your numbers. Discover oncedaily invokana®. With over 7 million prescriptions and counting, its the 1 prescribed sglt2 inhibitor that works to lower a1c. 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Or, if you experience symptoms of allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, or difficulty breathing or swallowing. Do not take invokana if you have severe liver or kidney problems tell your doctor about any medical conditionsis. And medications you take. Using invokana® may cause low blood sugar. Lin imagine life with a lower a1c. Are you loving your numbers . Theres only one invokana®. Ask your doctor about it by name. Welcome back, everyone. At 41 past the hour of the 4 00 on the east coast, 10 41 cairo time, all eyes are trained on cairo as it was the destination for egyptair flight 804, which departed paris some seven hours ago, about 15 minutes late or so behind schedule, but about 10, 15 minutes shy of its scheduled landing time, that plane disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea, some, oh, 160, 180 nautical miles north of the shoreline there. And it has meant that there are 66 souls that are unaccounted for at this time. Theres a lot of speculation as to what has happened. Weve been taking some educated guesses given the environment, the location, what may have happened, whether it was a technical catastrophe, or it may have been something far more nefario nefarious. Were awaiting some official word. We have yet to hear from the egyptair officials, but nbcs Kelly Cobiella has heard from the french aviation minister who has talked to the french citizens on this plane. If you would recap and why we have yet to hear from egyptair officials, anything from them . Reporter thats right, weve heard from the French Foreign minute stefr as well as the transport minister. The french officials holding an emergency meeting in paris this morning with all members of the cabinet. The French Foreign minister coming out just within the past hour, lending his support to the families. There are 15 french citizens, french nationals onboard that flight. He said their priority right now is those people and their families and finding this plane. And to that note, pledging any and all support egyptian authorities might be willing to accept in terms of search and rescue, boats, planes, helicopters, whatever the egyptians might need. So the french offering their support in terms of finding this plane. Also the transport minister saying weve noted, alex, that there were ten crew members. Among those ten crew members, three Security Officials. The transport minister saying that is absolutely normal operating procedure. Nothing unusual about that. There have also been reports that there was nothing unusual in the cargo, nothing officially listed in the cargo of that flight that would be dangerous, unusual, possibly cause any sort of security issue. So thats what were hearing from the french. In terms of the egyptians, weve heard lots of conflicting reports throughout these earlymorning hours. Some of them from the official social media feeds of egyptair, others from News Agencies regarding statements that the plane had crashed, that there was some sort of distress signal, possibly an emergency beacon that had been sent out from this plane. All of that has now been denied by egyptian officials. It appears at this point that what theyre doing is trying to consolidate the kind of the information thats going out to the media. So were now hearing repeated calls from egyptair to Pay Attention only to official News Releases that theyre sending out, and were holding out now for a press conference that is still about two, two and a half hours away from egyptian authorities on the disappearance of this plane. At this point, officially it is lost. It is not necessarily has not officially crashed in terms of the egyptian officials or where the egyptian officials are concerned. So about five hours now, more than five hours into this search, alex, it is broad daylight in the mediterranean. Were checking on sea conditions right now, but there were no weather issues overnight. That much we know. Okay. And, again, you are referencing the egyptian aviation ministry, which is scheduled to have a News Conference at 7 30 a. M. Eastern time, 1 30 p. M. There local time in cairo. We will await word for that, and thank you as we have you help cover that for us. Nbcs Kelly Cobiella in london. Lets go to cal perry, whos here in studio from msnbc. Cal, i want to take issue with what kelly talked about, those three Security Officials. We have been talking about egypt and the extent to which it relies on tourism or did at least prior to the arab spring in 2011. But its been difficult since then. I have to say im surprised that there were three Security Officers on board that plane. But i think im more surprised that the french are not surprised. I mean i didnt know that that was going on, but its certainly an indication as you said of whats been happening in egypt since 2011. This is a country desperate for tourism. Also to kellys point where you have different messages coming out from egypt, you have the civilianrun egyptair making their own statements. Then you have the military pulling back on those statements, which speaks to what happened in egypt in 2013 when there was a military coup. So the problem in egypt is you have two very different groups trying to put out information. You have the military, and you have the civilian authority. Theyre trying to get on the same page. We understand the Prime Minister of egypt arriving in the airport at cairo has gone a long way to sorting that out. But certainly in these early hours, what were seeing are all of the things that highlight the difficulties that the country of egypt is going through. And the security there in egypt, i mean we talk about what happened with egyptair just a couple of months ago when you had a disgruntled employee hijack the plane. And of course metrojet, which was brought down on halloween. That, again, by just a soda can. Talk about the security practices in egypt at the air importants. Granted, this is a plane coming from paris to cairo. Youll remember that video from Sharm El Sheikh airport of people going around the metal detector. Were talking about smaller airports. Again, not cairo. Cairo is a very large airport where security is supposed to be that of western standards. But in some of these airports in egypt, and certainly Sharm El Sheikh is one of them, you can tip someone to go aunder rround metal detech tors. Just so save time. That was happening consistently until about six months ago when we had that metrojet crash. The egyptians slammed down hard and said they had fixed those issues. Im curious about the cargo manifest. When a plane lands at any airport, is it completely emptied of the cargo, or could something be put on a plane at one point and then continue on . And remain onboard . And this was the fifth leg for this aircraft, which is exactly what folks in paris are going to be looking at. Was there anything on board that then remained onboard and made that trip to cairo . And who were the last people to look at that . And to tom costellos point, just because the manifest doesnt read that theres anything wrong, thats absolutely no indication of what is actually on that airplane. Okay. Msnbcs cal perry, thank you. With that, well ask you to continue standing by for us as we continue with our coverage of the disappearance of egyptair flight 804. It has been some seven hours since that plane disappeared from radar. We have yet to get any conclusive answers of course. That planes last known position was at 37,000 foot altitude, and it was over the Mediterranean Sea. Not a word from that plane since. Stay with us. Well be right back after a short break. Im alex trebek. If youre age 50 to 85, i have an Important Message about security. Write down the number on your screen, so you can call when i finish. The lock i want to talk to you about isnt the one on your door. This is a lock for your Life Insurance, a rate lock, that guarantees your rate can never go up at any time, for any reason. But be careful. Many policies you see do not have one, but you can get a lifetime rate lock through the Colonial Penn program. Call this number to learn more. This plan was designed with a rate lock for people on a fixed income who want affordable Life Insurance thats simple to get. Coverage options for just 9. 95 a month, less than 35 cents a day. Act now and your rate will be locked in for life. It will never increase, guaranteed. This is lifelong coverage that can never be cancelled as long as you pay your premiums, guaranteed. And your acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions. You cannot be turned down because of your health. Call forour information kit and read about this rate lock for yourself. Youll also get a free gift with great information both are free, with no obligation, so dont miss out. Call for information, then decide. Read about the 30 day, 100 percent money back guarantee. Dont wait, call this number now. Welcome back, everyone. Approaching 52 past the hour of 4 00 a. M. Here on the east coast. Notably we are approaching 11 00 a. M. Local time in cairo. All eyes are focused there right now as we continue our coverage of the disappearance of egyptair flight 804. It took off just over seven hours ago now from paris Charles De Gaulle airport. It was bound for cairo airport, should have landed. But about 15 minutes before that scheduled landing, it simply disappeared from radar at an altitude of about 37,000 feet while flying over the mediterranean not too far offshore, over those waters between greece and egypt. Lets go right now to nbcs aviation expert, our tom costello. Tom, we want to talk about the a320 plane. As youve called, it is a workhorse. It is technologically very, very advanced. We should say traditionally it holds about 150 people, though if you go on those lowcost carriers, they can pack in 180. This particular plane had 66 on board, ten of which were crew and security members for egyptair. Thats right. Listen, one of these planes takes off somewhere in the world every two and a half seconds. Wow. Reporter i mean this is one of the most widely flown plane ins world. In competes with the boeing 737. It uses this fly by Wire Technology which airbus really was the pioneer of back in the 80s. Its highly automated. Multiple computer redundant systems to maintain it doesnt really want the pilots to stray out of the programmed route and flight path and parameters for the plane. If the pilot tries to get out of the normal flight envelope, if it tries to do something that the computers believe could be catastrophic, the computers wont let the pilot do it. They will bring the plane back into a just position. Now, if the pilot was really intent on overriding it, he or she could. But the point is this is a plane thats built for you know, its interesting. I was at toulouse in france one time talking to the airbus executives. And i said to them, who are you building this plane for . And they said, were not building it for the captain who graduates from the u. S. Air force academy or the french air force. We are building it for the second and Third Generation pilot who is going to inherit this plane, and they will be in latin america or in africa or the caribbean, and that pilot may not have all the expertise that a highly trained military pilot does. And we want them to be very comfortable in this plane and not to make a silly mistake. So its designed not for the creme de la creme of pilots but for the average joe pilot. They really want this plane to be a plane that is very, very difficult to screw up in, in other words, and thats why this track record is so good. And although we should note that this pilot had a lot of experience on this plane. He had 6275 hours of flying, including just 2,100 over 2,100 on an airbus itself. I just want to ask you when it comes to autopilot, which is where that plane would have been at 37,000 feet. Surely. Cruising altitude. What are pilots doing during that time . What do they do . Reporter theyre supposed to be monitoring, just watching and monitoring, talking to each other, especially if you are approaching the last, you know, 30 minutes, 45 minutes of your flight. Youre preparing to begin your descent into cairo. So they were probably monitoring their systems, having a conversation. Its entirely possible one would get up to use the lavatory while the other one was maintaining Flight Controls. But it is highly unusual that you would have a plane just go poof, vanish and disappear off the radar at 37,000 feet. Because that automated system, because the autopilot is flying the plane with all the redundancies we talked about, it is a very wellmade and constructed plane. Can i make one last point here . I was just doing some research and i was reminded there is another airbus a320 that had a bombing incident in february in somalia. You may recall blew a hole in the side of the plane. It sucked a passenger out. Yet another indication of terrorists determined to hit aviation. Tom costello, we thank you. Were going to continue our coverage, everybody. Stay with us after a short break. Msnbc way too early will join you then. Oh, look. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works. In one week. With the. Fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and. Even deep wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. See whats possible. Good morning, everyone. It is thursday, may 19th, 2016. Im alex witt, and youre watching way too early. We have been following breaking news all morning for you. It has been now eight hours since egyptair flight 804 disappeared from radar. That plane took off from Charles De Gaulle airport about 11 09 p. M. Local time in a 04 disapped from radar. It took off at 11 04 and headed to the cairo airport when it simply vanished. It happened around 2 45 cairo time, just vanishing from radar screens. According to officials, the plane was just about ten miles into egypt air space when it disappeared from the radar trackers and it was reportedly flying at an altitude of 37,000 feet at the time. That would be a high cruising altitude. According to egyptair, there were 56 passengers on board that flight including three children. Also seven crew members and three security personnel on board on behalf of egyptair. None of the passengers are reportedly american citizens. Right now, Egyptian Armed forces are conducting Search Operations with a number of planes and naval unan
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