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EgyptAir Flight From Paris To Cairo Goes Missing; Missing EgyptAir Jet Is An Airbus A320; Reuters: Officials Believe EgyptAir Plane Crashed Into. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 19, 2016 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: David, hold that thought for us. OK, hold that [thought for us.

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: David Soucie there with us. Appreciate that insight. We'll come back to you.

All right. You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage. I'm Isha Sesay in Los Angeles.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. It is 10:00 p.m. here on the west coast. An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo is missing. The airline says the plane was at an altitude of 37,000 feet, ten miles inside Egyptian air space when it disappeared from radar.

SESAY: There are 56 passengers and ten crew members were on board. Charles de Gaulle Airport says Flight MS 804 left Paris at 11:09 p.m. local time. It's now just after 7:00 a.m. in Egypt. The airlines says military teams have now arrived at a specific search area and are looking for the plane.

All right. Let's bring in senior international correspondent, Jim Bitterman, who joins us now from Paris. Jim, as we try and piece this altogether, what can you tell us and what are you hearing from authorities in Paris?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Isha, they have been alerted by this and they are in the process of trying to contact the EgyptAir people to find out exactly what role they are going to take in this. According to the spokesman, they are obviously involved in two different ways.

First, the plane took off here from Charles de Gaulle Airport and secondly, it's an airbus and of course, that's constructed here in France. They will be involved both ways.

It's just a question of finding the transponder and the plane itself, the black boxes involved and that sort of thing before they can really do anything.

But the Egyptian authorities will take the lead on this because it's their aircraft. So they will be in charge of the investigation, but the VEA, which is the main accident investigating authority here will also be directly involved because of the construction of the aircraft and the point of departure -- Isha.

VAUSE: Jim, this flight from Paris to Cairo, was it a four-hour flight, a fairly routine flight, one that happens a couple of times a week. We heard from one of the senior officials from EgyptAir this one left without any problems. And essentially, as far as the French are concerned, would they see it as a problem on their end or something else?

BITTERMANN: I think it's too early to say that, but I am sure that, for example, that out at the airport, they are going to be looking at everybody who had anything to do with the departure of this aircraft, the baggage handlers, the security folks at the airport, and anyone who is involved at any stage of the game.

I should add too that there might be some French passengers on board. We don't know what the story is there in terms of the nationalities of the passengers. The foreign ministry is involved. There is an emergency meeting set up.

There probably in these circumstances normally there would be an emergency number set up for families here to call, but it all seems very likely among the passengers, there would be some French citizens. That's another point of involvement for the French.

Nonetheless, I think it will be something that will evolve as the morning goes on here, but I can tell you that out at the airport, I'm sure they will go over security procedures, everything that took place involving this aircraft.

But as you say, the Egyptian authorities say, there was nothing untoward in the way this plane took off from here, and yes, it's quite a routine flight. There is quite a few in fact per day that leave from Charles de Gaulle to Cairo. So it's not the kind of thing you would be suspect of. No unusual circumstances in the departure from here -- John.

SESAY: Jim, to be clear, has this situation affected operations at Charles de Gaulle in any way?

BITTERMANN: No, not at all. In fact, the only that seems to be affected things this morning in a little bit is that there has been a strike on Air France personnel and about 15 percent of the flights have been cancelled, but that has nothing to do with this at all. It's a long scheduled strike that's on right now -- Isha.

SESAY: All right. CNN Senior international correspondent, Jim Bittermann joining us there from Paris. Jim, appreciate it. We shall check in again with you shortly. Thank you.

VAUSE: OK, let's bring in our aviation correspondent, Richard Quest, who joins us from Beijing. Richard, dare we say here we go again, planes don't simply vanish, but it appears that this one has at least for now. What can you tell us?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, I think the issue here is the first thing I always look at whenever a plane goes missing in this situation is what phase of flight has it happened?

Take off, landing, descent, and the crews. What we have here with this EgyptAir flight is a plane at 37,000 feet and (inaudible) miles close to the destination.

[01:05:06]And in many ways again, John, it's cruising along. Engine (inaudible) means at full throttle and it is the statement moment of the journey and that raises an entire rack of issues as to what could have gone wrong.

I'm thinking now, of course, not only of security issues but of mechanical issues and in terms, let's take for example, structural issues with (inaudible) Malaysia Airlines MH-17, but when a plane goes missing in the cruise, this is an extremely unusual scenario.

SESAY: And Richard, we just spoke to Jeffrey Thomas, an aviation analyst, a short time ago. He was of the mind that this would not be something associated with a mechanical problem. Do you see it in that way? Are you willing to rule it out?

QUEST: No, I'm not willing to rule out. I'm not willing a mechanical problem in the sense of a failure of the aircraft, no, I'm not. Because you know, you do have the incident of the Air Asia incident where the plane was up 30,000 feet and it was the pulling of a circuit breaker, which lead to the disruption of the aircraft and it fell out of the sky and the pilot mishandled the plane and it fell out of the sky.

So I think it -- look, let's be realistic. If some form of security or terrorist activity high on the list of possibilities when a plane falls out of the sky in the cruise, the answer is absolutely yes.

It is one of those incidents, a rare scenario where you have to say was it terrorists or was it an explosive device? No question about it. You have to put it on the table and not speculation. It is simply a fact of reality.

But you also remember incidents like Swiss Air with the in-flight fire and Air Asia with the pulling of the circuit breaker, and in those situations you do have a mechanical or aircraft related incident that caused the pilot to lose control of the plane.

I'll give you another one, Air France 447 fell out of the sky in the cruise. So Isha, you can't -- I would definitely, most definitely at the moment leave mechanical on the table.

VAUSE: Richard, one of the issues that David Soucie raised a short time ago was the fact that he was initially under the impression that this was a 737 plane which was scheduled to leave Paris for Cairo, but now the airliner saying it was in fact an Airbus A320. He was puzzled as to why it would have been changed out. He thought that was peculiar. What is your take on that?

QUEST: No, at this point I'm not puzzled or concerned about that. At the moment, it clarifies pretty quickly. It's not nice. You know, I'll give you another spot at the moment, who was on board the plane? How accurate is the flight manifest?

MH17 proved the plane over Ukraine that the manifest is inevitably inaccurate by quite a large degree. It's not very competent when the airline can't tell you in a moment what the aircraft was that's running the flight, but, you know, flights have it as one thing.

Flight radar 24 had it has another, but I don't -- the moment I am not seeing that as being germane to what happened.

SESAY: Well, Richard, as you made mention of the issue of competency of the airline, let me ask you about that, EgyptAir, give us some perspective on this airline and operations.

QUEST: EgyptAir is a solid airline that has been around a very long time. It's had extremely publicized well-known incidents, not least which of course won't be alleged pilot suicide on the Flight 767 out of New York some years ago.

You know, does it have a safety issue? There is no reason to believe. Remember, it was Metrojet, the Russian airliner that got blown out of the sky, out of Sharmel-Sheik (ph).

If you are talking about EgyptAir, it has a well-qualified crew that means that had some economic difficulties, but I've flown it many times without reservation.

VAUSE: Richard, we're also getting word now the Egyptians and Greeks beginning the search in the sea where, you know, it's believed that this plane if it came down, it came down in that particular area.

QUEST: Right.

VAUSE: So how does this search progress? How long before they get there? What are we looking at here?

[01:10:09]QUEST: Sure, sure. So the first thing to do to recognize this (inaudible) FIR, flight information region, that the plane come down in. That is the first and most important because that it tells you which country has privacy over organizing and arranging the search rescue and recovery.

That's why, for example, Australia has taken the lead with MH370 in the South Indian Ocean because it's in their FIR. At the moment, I'm not sure whether it's in Greece's FIR or Egypt's FIR.

But whichever one it is, they will be responsible for the negotiation of it. It doesn't matter to some extent because countries left, right and center will be offering support to send planes, send ships and these stories have a certain rhythm to them.

You know, I would expect in the next few hours assets get overhead and on the ground and you'll start to see debris is found on the ground and on a much more thorough search in a particular area takes place.

The other thing you have to bear in mind, John and Isha, is how the plane fell out of the sky. You have the last-known position of where the aircraft was, but the plane may have fallen 10 to 15 miles in any direction.

They don't need to find debris on the surface of the water and for that you reverse to where you believe the body of the plane and the poor people on board are. That's what happened with Air Asia. It might take a day. It might take a week.

SESAY: And Richard, as we try and get a sense how these things progress, let me also ask you about Airbus. This was an aircraft constructed in France. So talk to me about the French involvement in this as you would see it going forward.

QUEST: I see Airbus -- Airbus' involvement will be absolutely front and central in this. They will have a go team on the way or preparing to go, and the 320 is their most popular aircraft, thousands, thousands on order.

About 4,000 of them have been sold and in service across the range of the 318 to the 321 and related to that will be the BEA, which is the French investigator, but the organization responsible for investigating this under Annex 13 will be the state of occurrence.

That will be either Greece, if it's their FIR or Egypt if it's on their side of the border. The French will be involved because they made the plane. The engine manufacturer will be involved because they obviously made the engine.

Will they -- there will be questions about whether there was an issue with the 320. There have been questions before about the A320 and it has a certain tendencies. These will all need to be thoroughly investigated because it happened in the cruise and planes do not fall out of the sky for no reason, particularly at 37,000 feet.

SESAY: Richard Quest joining us there, our CNN aviation correspondent. We always appreciate the insight. Thank you so much. Richard, of course, we'll continue to check in with you as we get more details to get your insight and perspective. Thank you, Richard. Stand by for us.

VAUSE: We also have this news coming to us from the Reuters news agency that the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority is saying that the missing plane probably crashed into the sea. It went missing over the Mediterranean. Now we're piecing this together.

The Civil Aviation Authorities in Egypt believed that it crashed into the sea, which is now the focus of that search and rescue.

Another tweet there about the plane disappearing within ten miles of Egyptian air space. Other word is last contact with the plane was ten minutes before it disappeared from radar.

Ian Lee is live in Cairo this hour and joins us now. Ian, from your perspective there in Cairo, walk us through exactly what the Egyptians are doing both the authorities there, the armed forces as well as the EgyptAir officials.

SESAY: Ian, are you -- VAUSE: I don't think we have Ian. We'll try and get Ian back on the

line, but clearly what we have now is a search and rescue situation on going. It's about 30 or 40 miles north of the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea.

[01:15:10]We know that the Egyptians are carrying out the search. Ships from the navy and aircraft in the air looking for this. The Greeks are also helping in this because it's obviously in the region, as well.

We're now piecing this together but clearly, this plane is what, more than four hours over due. The last contact was four hours and 30 minutes ago. That's when it disappeared from radar, ten minutes before that was the last radio contact.

The search is progressing and looking for debris, trying to find out exactly where this debris might be and as Richard Quest was explaining to us, once you find the debris and a piece of debris you reverse engineer and work out where the plane and everything else might be and that is something which will take a good deal of time.

SESAY: And the condition of the debris in and of itself, its size and condition is a big indicator as to what happened. They will be looking at every single element of this. We'll take a very quick break and we will of course continue the breaking news coverage when we come back. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE RILEY, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sport Headlines. Sevilla (ph) have yet again underline their dominance in the Europa League by winning the competition for a third season in a row.

The Spanish side came from behind to beat Liverpool 3-1 despite Daniel (inaudible) giving the lead to be a storm back in the second half. Equalizing after 17 seconds, (inaudible) would have quite the night scoring not once but twice to make the game safe. Sevilla also bag a place in the champion's league group stages for next season.

The IOC president, Thomas Back (ph) has told CNN that he trust the world anti-doping agency to get to the bottom of sports doping crisis. The problem has escalated this week. The spotlight has once again fallen on Russia. Back is refusing to predict the outcome of various investigations into the issue and says he hasn't been in contact with Vladimir Putin.

Recently, relegated Ashton Villa will find themselves in England's championship, but the club will also likely find itself under new ownership because the Chinese businessman has reportedly agreed to buy it for a little under $90 million, the country's football league has already signed off on it.

First, though, it was the American billionaire, Randy Learner (ph) who brought the villains back in 2006. And that's a look at your sports headlines, I'm Kate Riley. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:20:10]

SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. We continue our breaking news coverage of the disappearance of MS804. That EgyptAir flight that disappeared from Paris en route to Cairo. We want to bring you up to speed on exactly what we know right now.

Egyptian military's search and rescue teams have arrived at a specific search location to look for that missing jetliner. Officials from the airline and Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority tell Reuters the plane probably crashed in the sea. EgyptAir says the Airbus 320 was heading from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board when it disappeared from radar.

VAUSE: The plane was at an altitude of 37,000 feet ten miles inside Egyptian air space. An EgyptAir official says there is no confirmation of a distress call and no notification of any special cargo or dangerous goods on board.

Ian Lee joins us now on the line from Cairo Airport. So Ian, can you describe to us the scene there right now?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): All right, now they are gathering the family members. We haven't been given access to that area, but they are gathering the family members into an area to give them the latest updates. Also media has been directed to that area for any sort of updates from Egyptian officials.

But from what we're hearing right now, this search and rescue operation is taking place 40 to 50 miles north of the Egyptian coast. That's the area where they believe this plane had crashed in the Mediterranean.

We're hearing that that Egyptian Air Force as well as the Egyptian Navy is involved in this search. No word yet if they have found anything, but Egyptian officials are telling us right now that they have all resources available that can search for this plane.

They have put it into that search, but right now, it really is the waiting game, trying to see what they are able to come up with, what they are able to find but it is excruciating for the family members here in Cairo.

There were 66 total people on board this flight, 56 passengers. We do not know the nationalities of the passengers, could there have been French, most likely or there were Egyptians on the plane, but what other nationalities were there on the plane.

We know there were two infants and one child on board this plane. EgytpAir officials are telling us that they did not receive any sort of distress call from the pilot. Everything was going normal until the plane disappeared from radar.

We're also hearing that there wasn't any hazardous material on board or anything that would -- they would notify the pilot about that they would be concerned about.

So for all intense purposes, it seemed like a very normal flight. EgyptAir saying that this plane had all the regular maintenance. That everything was on schedule.

This pilot they are telling us is someone with great experience with thousands of hours of flight experience and over 2,000 hours on this specific aircraft.

So really, the cause of the crash is still very much unknown. At least the Egyptian officials, that is one of the main priorities right now figuring out where that plane is and what was the cause of the crash?

SESAY: And Ian, is this situation affecting operations there at the airport in Cairo? What is happening with regards to other flights taking off and landing?

LEE: Right now, it appears that everything is going normal and on schedule. We haven't seen any delays or any other congestion here at the airport. It seems to be operating as normal.

EgyptAir officials telling us that they will keep updating us with the information as soon as they get it. They are right now establishing a command center to deal with this situation but still, this plane disappearing about four hours ago, five hours ago now at this time. They are just trying to get a grasp of the situation and move forward.

SESAY: All right. Ian Lee joining us on the line on the scene at the airport in Cairo. Ian, appreciate the report. We'll check back with you shortly. Stand by for us. Thank you.

VAUSE: Clearly, the investigation into what may or may not happen is a crucial part to try and find out where that wreckage might be and if there are any survivors in the sea.

[01:25:04]Let's try and get more perspective on the investigation. Dr. Alan Diehl is a former accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA and U.S. Air Force.

He is the author of "Air Safety Investigators Using Science To Save Lives. One Crash At A Time." He joins us now live from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Alan, thank you for being with us. We always appreciate your insight. Let's just recap some of what we know here right now, 37,000 feet, no distress call. No sign of descent. Whatever happened, I guess, happened very quickly. What's your assessment?

ALAN DIEHL, FORMER ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR (via telephone): You assume that. There could of course been some kind of on board fire. I know we always think that the pilots will make a mayday call because that's the way it is in the movies but in fact, pilots try to troubleshoot then they navigate and communicate.

So they may have been battling some sort of mechanical problem and may not have elected to make a mayday call because they know only they can solve the problem. I know you covered a lot of accidents before and they are all different.

I'm not absolutely convinced that this thing might not have ditched, 37,000 feet sounds along -- it's cruise altitude, but you can get down in eight or ten minutes and you wouldn't necessarily make a radio call.

I'm not suggesting that that's what -- I'm speculating as you know, Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen, but until we actually find a fuel slick or wreckage, I haven't given up that it might have been some kind of controlled ditching, but everything is on the table as they say this early in the investigation.

SESAY: And how difficult is that to do at 37,000 feet as you talk about a controlled ditching? What level of complexity are we talking about?

DIEHL: Well, of course, it was at night. That always complicates things when you have to make a judgment. When the miracle on the Hudson occurred, that was daylight on a calm river. That would be a challenging endeavor to say the least, but, you know, they pulled it off before.

Other pilots not just Captain Sullivan. They have done those kind of things before. Pilots don't normally practice that but it's possible. Again, I don't want to raise -- Isha, I don't want to raise false hope that's the most likely scenario.

But until you find wreckage or a fuel slick or something like that, I hope the -- I'm sure the search and rescue people are still looking for the possibility of an intact aircraft and hoping against hope that maybe it was a ditching.

VAUSE: Alan, let me ask you a very basic question here. If it was a ditching, wouldn't the transponders have radiated some kind of a location to radar? If they ditched it, why it disappeared from radar?

DIEHL: Well, it would disappear from radar because of the -- you know, once it gets down below the horizon. Now, of course, we know there is a lot of radar coverage in that area.

So you think the primary radar, I'm sure the air safety investigators in Egypt and Israel and other places are looking at their data right now to see where, not only where they lost the transponder, but which way they went and how quickly did it descend to get some idea of whether or not it could have been ditching.

Again, I'm only speculating here, John, as you know. There is a number of devices and of course, the Israeli military has very good radar and I'm sure I would expect they would have offered whatever data they have to the Egyptian investigators will have to carry out this investigation but we've seen Airbuses go in, Boeings.

The famous one is Air France -- the South Atlantic back in 2011, as I recall. So we've seen this before. That wasn't a ditching. That was a, you know, a crash.

And again, you'll -- they should be able to find now that it's light with the assets they have, vessels and especially helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, I would imagine they would find a fuel slick and wreckage fairly quickly and know whether or not there is any possibility of any survivors.

VAUSE: Well, Alan Diehl, we appreciate it. We know as you say you're speculating, but you're speculating with insight and expertise that few people have. So we very much appreciate you being with us.

SESAY: Yes, Alan, thank you so much for that. Our breaking news coverage of the missing EgyptAir Flight MS804 continues after a very quick break. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:33:20] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. It's gone 10:33 here in Los Angeles. It is 7:33 in Cairo.

We'd like to update you on breaking news. The Reuters News Agency reporting that a missing equipment air flight is believed to have crashed into the sea. Flight 804 disappeared on its way from Paris to Cairo a few hours ago now. Planes and navy ships are searching in a specific location with assistance from Greece.

SESAY: There were 56 passengers on board the flight including three children and 10 crew members. The airline says the Airbus A320 went missing north of the Egyptian coast after entering Egyptian Air space. It was flying at 37,000 feet.

VAUSE: Let's bring in our aviation correspondent, Richard Quest, in Beijing.

Richard, we're looking at some details. The plane was at 37,000 feet. It was just inside Egyptian Air space. Let's try and recap everything we recap everything we know because everything that happened, happened very quickly.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: No question about it. You're looking at a dramatic event that prevented the crew on board from giving any form of mayday or warning and also it happened 37,000 feet.

Now obviously, if you look at where the event took place and you look at Cairo, I guess you're getting close to descent where the aircraft will begin the descent down to Cairo's airport and this is the safest part of the journey. The landing has a high incident of accidents as does take off. Once you're in the cruise or at least top of descent it's a tough part. You have no warning in the cruise. That is really all you've got and it leads you in certain directions that you can -- one can speculate about obviously the issue of explosives, terrorist activity but, but, before you jump on that horse, you have to remember the number of occasions where there have been mechanical issues and either the plane has failed or the pilots have then mishandled the aircraft. I'm thinking of Air Asia, Air France 447, I'm thinking of Swiss Air. Those situations where there have been those. It's way too soon to hang your hat on any particular reason.

[01:36:04] SESAY: And, Richard, other aviation analysts we've spoken to in the last couple hours making the point about the ACAR system, the transponder, whether they were transmitting, and if they weren't, what that says about what happened?

QUEST: Right, let's go through this. The transponder is basically nothing more than the radar signal that goes out. It's interrogated by the plane and the plane sends back a signal to the ground. It gives the most basic information of the plane's flight number. The system is a much more sophisticated monitoring system that is sending data from the aircraft to the ground to a third party provider. We know in certain situations that if there is a crisis on board, it will start transmitting the faults. Air France 447 showed this. There was something like 24 faults that happened when the plane failed and they were all transmitted out. Now, without knowing the settings that Egypt Air had for the system on the 320, we can't make a judgment on that. However, we -- I would expect if the plane had started to fail in the air as a result of multiple failures, if it was a complete power failure, there would be data sent out. We'd have to wait and see. 447 is the standard case that shows the information is sent out.

SESAY: Richard, just to pick up on what you said, you said you don't know the settings Egyptian Air use. Does that mean different airlines use different settings for the system?

QUEST: Right. The ACAR system is designed to do a variety of things, route planning and fuel management and keeps the ground informed how the aircraft and engines are performing. In some airlines, this information is being sent out constantly in real time. In other airlines, it's done as a dump on ground. So as soon as the plane lands on the ground, the ACAR will send out all the background data of the flight so that the mechanics and OFS center can see. However, if there is an emergency, fire on board, failure of computers, a failure of a main flight computer, ACAR is usually set to send out that information in real time but they would have gone from -- here is the point. That data would have gone from the aircraft to the satellite in whoever was handling their data to whoever deals with Egypt Air and only then it would have gone to the airline itself. So my guess is that equipment air is going through computer files and talking to the provider to see what did you hear from the plane? It was a few hours after Air France 447 went missing that the company finally said yes, our mechanics got this information so it's going to take some time for whoever provides computer services to Egypt Air to go get the data from that particular aircraft. But I guarantee you they are doing it now. They are going back into the finals to find out exactly what data was being sent from 804 when the incident happened.

[01:39:58] VAUSE: Richard, just stand by.

Because we're getting information about the nationalities of those on board this flight. There were 15 from France, 30 from Egypt, one from Britain, Belgium, two Iraqis, one person from Kuwait, one from Saudi, one from the Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, and one Canadian. That is coming from Egypt Air, which just released. That information on your screen right now, that's a number, which anyone can call if they want information, families can call, I should say, if they are looking for information about this crash.

With the passengers and the relatives in mind, walk us through the process. How does the airline deal with the people? We saw what the airline does now in the next few hours and days will be very critical.

QUEST: OK. There are procedures well put in place by the United Nations body on Aviation and Procedures that are quite clear about what the airline has to do. The first thing the airline will be doing, of course, will be verifying the integrity of the manifest, making sure that the names of the passengers -- the right passengers. Remember, with 370 there were several people on board. Two had stolen passports. With MH17 it took nearly a week to verify the integrity and the report specifically said -- the report to MH17 specifically criticized the fact that the manifest often doesn't truly reflect the names of the passengers. So that's the first most, important absolute goal of Egypt Air both in Paris and in Cairo, and along the line, because there may well be people traveling on Star Alliance tickets. Egypt Air was a member of Star Alliance. They will be connecting passengers. So making sure -- before you start publishing the flight manifest and the passenger list, you need to make sure firstly it's right and secondly the passengers' next of kin have been informed. That is humanity, that is a necessity. Thereafter, you start to look at providing accommodations, making arrangements for people to travel to the region, making arrangements for family care and comfort and care and control, and also psychological issues and -- but there are procedures. Every airline has in place well-practiced procedures. And in this day in age, John and Isha, if those procedures fail, there is frankly no excuse. We've seen the horrific nature of 370. 17 wasn't much better. Asia was exemplary in the way they did it. MetroJet was a shambles. And now you got this particular 804.

VAUSE: OK.

SESAY: Richard Quest, we appreciate it. Thank you for that perspective there. Thank you, Richard. Stand by for us. We'll come back to you shortly.

VAUSE: Thank you, Richard.

Before we go to break, an update on information we would like to correct. The initial information from Egypt Air officials was the search was 30 to 40 miles north of the Egyptian coast. They are updating that, saying the location of the last contact with the missing plane was 270 kilometers, about 200 miles from the Egyptian coast. That's according to an Egyptian official. Much further away from the Egyptian coast than originally said.

And with that we'll take a short break. You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:47:58] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. It's just gone past 10:45 on the West coast. We want to update you on our breaking news coverage. Greece is helping the Egyptian military in the search for a missing airplane with 66 people on board. Reuters is reporting Egyptian officials believe the plane crashed into the sea.

VAUSE: Flight 804 vanished from radar after entering Egyptian Air space as it headed from Paris to Cairo. The plane lost contact 280 kilometers, about 170 miles north of the Egyptian coast. They reported they lost contact 50 kilometers off the coast. This is the latest information. They also say there was no confirmed distress call.

VAUSE: Let's bring in Peter Goelz, a CNN aviation analyst and a former managing director with the NTSB, joining us from Washington.

Peter, always good to speak to you.

Let me ask you as you look at the details we have right now, again, we ask everyone that joins us what they make of the fact the plane was flying at 37,000 when it disappeared before entering Egyptian air space, and as we understand, there was no confirmation of a distress call. What does that say to you? What jumps out at you now?

PETE GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST (voice-over): Quite ominous. All of the other analysts are saying the same thing. It's too soon to point in any one direction but of usually, this is a very safe period of flight when you're at cruise altitude that it would disappear off the radar screen without any indication of distress from the flight crew is very, very ominous.

VAUSE: So, Peter, just tell me as someone that worked with the NTSB and the boss of the NTSB and involved in searches, the Egyptians now are taking the lead on the search. Do they have the resources to carry this out successfully? They are working with Greeks, as well. What's your take?

GOELZ: I believe they do have the resources. I've worked with Egyptians on two accidents and I believe that they are perfectly capable of conducting this investigation. It will be a matter of national pride for them as it should be and they will take the lead. The issues -- you know, what is going on right now is two parallel activities. One, the highest priority is the search and hopefully, recovery or rescue.

But then parallel to that is the investigation and it started already. You know, the plane's maintenance files have been frozen. People are starting to look and gather those. All of the available radar information is being secured. There is the canvass taking place of planes nearby. If this is a well-traveled route, if anyone saw anything. And unfortunately, they will be looking at the terrorism side of it, as well. My guess is all the videotape from the passengers boarding the plane and clearing security at the airport will be reviewed to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.

[01:50:19] VAUSE: Peter, thank you for being with us.

Peter Goelz, former NTSB chair, giving us insight into what the next stages will be as the search goes on and also a search for answers.

SESAY: Thank you, Peter.

Stay with us. Our breaking news coverage of the missing Egypt Air flight continues after a break. We'll be right back.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. 10:54 in Los Angeles. It is 7:54 in the morning in Cairo where the prime minister arrived at the command response center at Cairo Airport. This is the latest news we have. Egypt Air flight 804 disappeared from radar as it traveled from Paris to Cairo. Reuters reporting the Egyptian officials say the plane probably crashed into the sea. 56 passengers and 10 crew members were on board.

[01:55:04] SESAY: Egypt Air says there is no confirmation of a distress call. The plane was flying at 37,000 feet when it vanished. Egyptian armed forces are conducting search-and-rescue operations in cooperation with Greece.

VAUSE: What we do know about the people on board, we're learning the nationalities. There were French, some people from Chad, one Canadian as well on board. And the break down was 56 passengers, 53 adults, two infants, one child. We also were told by an official from Egypt Air three security personnel were on board, five cabin crew and two pilots. The captain and first officer were in the cabin when this plane disappeared.

SESAY: Yeah. We understand that search-and-rescue operation is underway and assets from Egyptian Air force and Egyptian navy have been deployed to the search area. Time is of the essence.

VAUSE: We're also being told is that they are now saying that the plane especially disappeared from radar 270 kilometers, about 180 miles north of the Egyptian coast.

SESAY: Indeed. Daylight has broken. We expect to get more information in the coming hours. This is a story CNN will continue to stay on and follow through, so please do stay with us for that.

You're watching CNN breaking news coverage. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause.

Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett will pick it up from here.

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