This is the cbs evening news with scott pelley. Rose good evening. Scott is off tonight. Im charlie rose. And we beginre begin with a mystery. What happened to egypt air flight 804. The air bus a320 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea some time after 8 00 eastern time last night between the greek isle of crete and the egyptian coast. There were 56 passengers and a crew of 10 on board, none of them american. The United States has joand the search for the plane, and the National Transportation safety board is assisting egypt in the investigation. We have extensive coverage, beginning with Mark Phillips in paris. Reporter this was the second egypt air plane to leave paris in the past day that no one wanted to be on. This flight was taking grieving family members to cairo. Their relatives, who had left on last nights flight, never made it. Egypt air flight 804 had been at its normal cruising altitude over greek air space over the eastern mediterranean, when some time after 2 00 a. M. Local
Disturbing news, plane crash and fears, of course, this could be another terrorist attack. This was a relatively new plane, an airbus 320 built in 2003. The pilot and copilot had a lot of experience. Thousands of hours in the cockpit. The plane disappeared 30 minute before it was scheduled to land in cairo. Most of the 66 people on board were egyptian. Passengers from many other countries were on the manifest. No americans. Weve got this all covered this morning. Lets start with nbc keir simmons outside paris where that flight originated late last night. Keir simmons, good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning. French president in the past half hour, confirming that the plane crashed. Devastating news for the families of those on board, who have been waiting here at this hotel. And now the mystery over what happened to it over the mediterranean, multinational search for the plane and for answers. A plane that left the paris airport last night on a routine flight. Family members of p
Something like a disaster at sea. Youll have all sorts of nations joining. Any nation that has ships or boats or rescue capabilities along the mediterranean will join in the search. Because its an egyptian airplane, because it occurred in their air space, the egyptians will have the lead on the investigation. Colonel, were talking about quite a few hours since the last contact with this plane. What does that do in terms of theories on what happened here . It just continues to deepen the mystery. Again, an airplane should not disappear at 37,000 feet. And because we have so much good data, this airplane will not go missing in the same way that say the malaysian 370 flight that we lost in the indian ocean still havent found years later. Were going to find this airplane and find the wreckage, the mediterranean is not too deep in med. Well find the plane and the black boxes. I think well have a pretty good chance of determining what went wrong. We havent reports of any distress calls comin
Looked after by authorities and the airline who set up an Information Center for the family to get news as the airline finds more. Look at that image. You can see the grief on that womans face. Images just coming in gathering at the airports right now in paris, as well as in cairo and an emotional scene cruising around 37,000 feet above the Eastern Mediterranean and we call in llama ama hasan. A statement might have been released a few minutes ago. What is being ruled. Reporter we understand the egyptian Prime Minister says its too early to say whether it is a technical issue or related to terrorism about he said we cannot rule anything out. At this hour egyptair flight 804 on board 66 people, 56 passengers and 10 crew members. The plane took off from paris at Charles De Gaulle at 11 09 p. M. Time local time. Bound for cairo. Egyptair said they lost contact with them and it was due to land at 3 05 a. M. So not long to go before it was due to land. That was the planes final contact with
Over the eastern mediterranean. Flight 04 depart olympiad charles defall airport in paris late last night heading to cairo egypt but never arrived. An airline official now says a distress signal was received from the airplanes emergency equipment before it vanished from the radar. Thats different from a distress call. It did not come from the pilots but the equipment on the plane that sends a signal automatically. Aviation Officials Say they can confirm the plane crashed. The plane was an airbus anxiety 320 flying at 37,000 feet which is cruising altitude when it went down right around the time that it entered egyptian air space. The sad part, 66 people were on board. 56 of them passengers. Some three infants were told and ten crew members that include three security guards or the egyptian equivalent of air marshals. Thats right. Looking at the passenger manifest, a big dispersion in where the passengers were from. 30 were from egypt. 15 from france. Those families are now have many qu