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Egyptian Air Flight 804 Disappears from Radar; Authorities and Analysts Unsure of Cause; 66 Aboard Now Missing. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired May 19, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:17] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome, everyone. You are watching CNN breaking news. I'm Rosemary Church.

ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Errol Barnett.

Our special coverage continues. An urgent search-and-rescue operation is under way at this hour off the northern coast of Egypt. This comes after an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar. That plane was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew members. Egyptian aviation officials tell Reuters they believe the plane, their words, "probably crashed into the sea."

CHURCH: EgyptAir says the Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000 feet and 280 kilometers, or 175 miles, off the Egyptian coast when it lost contact. One official says there's no confirmation as yet of a distress call and no notification of any special cargo or dangerous goods on board.

BARNETT: Our Ian Lee is standing by for us in Cairo, Egypt, and can update us on the search-and-rescue operation under way.

Ian, this all took place roughly three to four hours ago, so it's still very early. But describe to us what assets Egyptian officials are sending to search for what could be any survivors in the waters of the Mediterranean.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, Errol, what we're hearing from Egyptian officials is that all resources available are being used to search for this flight. The Egyptian military, the air force is looking in the area as well as the Egyptian navy, scouring the site. They have arrived at the location where they believe the plane could have gone down. So right now, there is a massive search operation under way.

We're also hearing from Greek authorities that they are participating in the search as well. Earlier in the day, we heard from Egyptian officials that this plane had crashed -- sorry -- had disappeared about 40 to 50 miles off the coast. Now they pushed that back to 172 miles, 280 kilometers, which, if you look at a map, is about halfway between Egypt and Greece, really in the middle of the Mediterranean. So a large search area, especially since this plane was cruising at 37,000 feet when it disappeared, likely to be a large area for the officials to search.

But right now, we are at the airport, family members are starting to come here. There's over 30 family members. Right now, the officials have doctors here, translators here to assist the families. The prime minister is also at the command center, overseeing the search operation but right now, the two big questions are, where is this plane? And what caused it to disappear? This is what Egyptian officials are looking into.

And we must remember, at this time, the people that are lost, there's 56 passengers, which include a dozen nationalities, there's also two infants and one child among them. Also there were ten crew members, including seven crew members on the plane, as well as three security guards who were on the plane.

So, again, right now, Egyptian officials searching the area, which is about 280 kilometers, 170 miles north of the Egyptian coast, the Egyptian airport and navy looking for the flight.

BARNETT: And, Ian, because this is still unfolding and we're still gathering information, I want to show our viewers the phone numbers that EgyptAir has been sending out for relatives and anyone who wants to get in contact with the airline, if you think that you know someone who may have been on the flight. What is EgyptAir telling you and the public to do at this moment, let's say, for people in Cairo, where you are?

LEE: Well, they're telling anyone who has information, or is looking for their loved ones, they do have that number that they're urging everyone to call right now, and they do have services here for the family members to help them through this time. EgyptAir has said that they will get information out as soon as possible to these family members. And we have seen a lot of information being provided by EgyptAir this morning on social media, on Twitter, telling us the latest updates and correcting any previous tweets. So, a lot of information coming from them.

But right now, for family members here at the airport, the one piece of information they want to know, which we can't provide, the Egyptian officials haven't released it yet, is what happened to the plane, and if it did crash, which is most likely as it's been -- at least four hours overdue now. What is the fate, if there's any survivors or not? This is what the big question is right at this moment, this is what the family members here want to know.

[02:05:35] BARNETT: Ian Lee is on the phone with us at the airport there in Cairo.

It was mostly Egyptians and people from France on that flight, but as Ian said, people from more than a dozen nations were on this plane, Europe, the African continent and the Middle East. As he says there, the search continues in the Mediterranean for that flight.

Rosemary?

CHURCH: Well, we do want to bring in our aviation correspondent now, Richard Quest, who joins us from Beijing.

Richard, we are learning more details in relation to this lost plane, but what we don't know, and what everyone wants to know is what caused this plane to disappear. With the knowledge you have and the ground, what are you pieces together? What is the process of elimination that you go through, that analysts go through, to try to determine what may have been right at the cause of this?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: The definitive answer of course will only come with the recovery of the two flight data recorders and the cockpit voice record. But you know, you can't wait just for that. Because obviously, you have to start making sure you know what happened, if it was a security issue, therefore, that requires investigation in one particular area. If it's a safety issue, if it's a mechanical issue, then Airbus needs to get on that very, very quickly. So from my point of view, the first thing I look at is, at what phase of flight did the incident take place. And in this case, we have it in the cruise phase of flight. In other words, the plane is flying smoothly at 37,000 feet. It's 200 miles or so off the Egyptian coast. It's not even in the descent phase yet. Most incidents happen on takeoff and landing. They are, by far and away, the riskiest part in the phases of flight. So when you know it's in the cruise, Rosemary, you're really narrowing down quite dramatically the possibilities. You're looking at major structural failure of the aircraft. You're looking at mechanical fault leading to pilot flying error, and you're looking at some form of security, terrorist device that brought down the plane.

The other thing to look at here and it's the fact that we've got no dissent profile from the plane. So according to flight radar, and Flight Aware, the plane's trace just stops at 37,000 feet. And if you look at the graph normally of planes as they fall out of the sky, you'll see they continue to transmit some form of ADSB information and you do see the descent portfolio profile. We don't have that here. That suggests immediate, it suggests dramatic, it suggests loss of power, complete loss of power to the aircraft, either by explosive or otherwise, because the plane suddenly stops reporting. Too soon to say why, but those are the sort of things that you're looking at in the very early moments after an incident like this.

CHURCH: As you say, don't know why, but it is this process of elimination. What about the safety record of EgyptAir? What do we know about their track record?

QUEST: As good as any, as bad as others. You've got EgyptAir 990, which was the famous 767, which went down off New York. They've had a couple of other incidents along the line. But there's nothing there that suggests systemic unsafety that I can see at this early point.

One other thing, one thing I'm slightly not concerned about, but I think it's too soon to say, EgyptAir has already come out and said, there was nothing on the manifest in terms of the cargo. There was nothing warning the pilot. If there is something like a large number of lithium batteries or some form of cargo that could either be perishable or dangerous or risky, then there's a notice to the captain that is given to them before they leave, basically saying, captain, you need to know, this is in the hold. And what EgyptAir is saying is, so far, they have no record of that. I think it's too soon frankly to be making that sort of judgment. Because what happens after an incident like this, Rosemary, is that the airline has to start shutting down all the information systems as it relates to that flight, because you've now got to collate the data. So you have to isolate that flight. That means, the manifest, the cargo, the engineering, the maintenance records, the fuel delivery, what fuel was on board, everything about that flight, if you are an airline, you are now isolating that data, you are preserving its integrity for the investigation, and crucially, you are preventing any unauthorized access to that data. And that's the process that EgyptAir will be undergoing at the moment. It's crucial, because you're doing it at the same time as you're trying to verify who was on board, and make sure passengers are informed. With MH370, I spoke to family relatives who told me it was 15, 18 hours after the plane went missing before Malaysia Airlines was able to ring them up and say, your loved one was on board.

[02:11:15] CHURCH: It is so distressing. But you know, we've got this new information now. We're hearing that routine maintenance checks were performed on the EgyptAir aircraft in Cairo on Wednesday, May 18th. That was before it left for Paris, according to an EgyptAir official. What do you think of that?

QUEST: It is so way too soon to be making that sort of statement. What I'm guessing they're meaning, somebody has gone to the maintenance log and seen, for example, that what happened on the walk- around of the aircraft, or that a previous flight might have had something from the minimum equipment list that had been repaired, or that the plane had undergone a particular check, an overnight check of some sort, but I caution against giving any credence to these sorts of comments. Because, you know, the people who are putting these statements out cannot, in this short period of time, have collated all the data necessary to make a statement like that, with any definitive authority.

CHURCH: All right, our Richard Quest, joining us there from Beijing.

We'll come back to you, Richard, for more analysis on this. Many thanks for now, though.

BARNETT: Now we want to bring in our senior international correspondent, Jim Bittermann, who joins us from where this flight originated in Paris.

Jim, according to what EgyptAir has sent out about the passengers on board, there were some 15 French people on this flight. EgyptAir on the Cairo side is saying they're providing doctors, they're providing translators, all the necessary services. Do we know yet what options are available for relatives of passengers on the Parisian side of all this?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In fact, about the same thing. They've set up a crisis cell out at the airport. There's psychological and medical backup for people who wish to go to the airport. The fact is that this flight was in the air for three hours and

anybody that was in the families that saw their family members off is likely to have left the airport and gone home. Whether they'd want to come back to the airport, to be close for potential news, it's another story.

Now, President Hollande has issued a statement, saying that he shares the anguish of the families of the missing, of the victims of this crash, we're assuming it's crashed. We haven't found debris yet. But the French are going to be deeply involved here because, the fact is, there were 15 French on board. But also it's an Airbus aircraft and it's a point of departure. One of the things that I'm sure they'll be looking at out at the airport is exactly who had contact with this plane. There's 80,000 employees that work out of Charles de Gaulle Airport and they've done a lot in recent years, as the threat for terrorism has risen here, they're done a lot to separate out those employees who they think might have some kind of potential to perpetrate some kind of an act. Basically, they've separated them out one way or another, either forced them out of service at the airport, or else to keep them away from sensitive areas. So they'll be looking at that, I'm sure, the security procedure, the baggage handling and all that.

This flight was one of three scheduled flights, according to the Internet travel services that EgyptAir has per day into Paris and the planes come in, they're turned around and they go back out. It's not impossible that if there was something on board that exploded, that perhaps that came in with the plane and was on its way out with the plane when it exploded. So we're getting way ahead of where we should be in terms of speculation. But the fact is, there are a number of possible leads they'll be looking at.

And of course, the accident investigating team are heavily involved because Airbus, the manufacturer of the aircraft is based in Toulouse and they'll be looking at any connections in terms of maintenance records or possible problems with the aircraft.

So there you go. They're setting up crisis cells at the foreign ministry. There's a phone number people can call. But more than that, the French are waiting to see what the Egyptians find in terms of the search operation that's going on -- Errol, Rosemary?

[02:15:44] BARNETT: And, Jim, because all options are still on the table and there's nothing to suggest that there was a call of distress, something abrupt possibly happened on this flight. What should we make of the fact that there were dozens of people on the terror watch list who were employed at French airports last November? How much progress has been made on that front, or has it not been very public at all?

BITTERMANN: Well, it hasn't been very public. We're not told what kind of progress has been made in terms of separating out those people. But authorities are very much aware of that problem and there's been some talk here about the various ways that people can either be terminated and sent out of employment at the airport, or kept out of the sensitive areas. But this is a subject matter that's come up many times over the years. In fact, I can remember the first time, around 2014, that they had talked about the number of people out at the airport who may have had some dubious connections. So you're looking at a problem that goes back many years and the officials have been working on it for some time now. But 80,000 employees, there's a lot of potential for contact with the aircraft, either on the ground, or with the people who are getting on board the aircraft.

BARNETT: And officials there and in Cairo will be waking up to all of this information and getting us as many details as they can.

17 past 8:00 in the morning where Jim Bittermann is.

Jim, we'll see you later in the next few hours.

Rosemary?

CHURCH: And, Errol, as we continue our live coverage of this breaking news, I want to bring in Captain Desmond Ross. He's a former pilot and current principal of DRA Professional Aviation Services. He joins us live via Skype from Istanbul, Turkey.

Thanks so much for being with us, Captain Ross.

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: So, we've spoken to a number of different analysts. Not everyone is on the same page with this. There's a different process presumably that each analyst goes through to break this down. Some have suggested, they've eliminated mechanical problems here, others say, no, that can't be eliminated at this point. How do you break this down? What's your gut feeling with the years of experience you have behind you?

CAPT. DESMOND ROSS, PRINCIPAL, DRA PROFESSIONAL AVIATION SERVICES & FORMER PILOT: Rosemary, my gut feeling at the moment is that we're talking about some sort of a security issue here, which probably involved an explosion. But the cause of the explosion is obviously open to complete speculation at this point in time. It's much too early. The reality -- I'm actually sitting here at the moment, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, in that general direction, and there's so many ships out there at the moment, not only involved with general traffic, but also looking for refugees and the migrants coming to Europe, that an aircraft to go down in that region, on that track, it's a pretty fair chance that somebody has seen something. It's too early to find these people, but maybe by the end of today, we'll have heard from somebody who has seen the aircraft go down. Maybe we'll know a lot more in just two or three hours. Right now, it's too early.

The maintenance of that aircraft, EgyptAir is quite a respectable airline. I've flown on them myself. The A320 is a totally reliable aircraft. It's the work horse of the skies, straight up there like the Boeing 737. Those two are the most popular aircraft in international operations. It was in the cruise, safest part of the flight. Nothing should be dramatically happening, as it were, at that point in time. The aircraft is not turning, not diving, just gliding along and everything should be calm. Now for it to suddenly disappear from radar and not to have any form of trace from that moment on, suggests that something cataclysmic has occurred.

What I can say, the Egyptian authorities in particular, have been very, very sensitive about their security issues after since the Sharm el Sheikh incident. They have been working at improving aviation security on the Egyptian side. They're looking at continuing improvements. I've personally been involved in some discussions. They're very, very concerned.

OK, this aircraft is originated from Paris, so it wouldn't have been Egyptians that checked that aircraft into the air. It would have been French people, French security services. There's great concern about insider threat, insider risk in the aviation security industry at the moment. Richard Quest referred to it, or your other correspondent. That the French authorities have been weeding out, as it were, people on the watch list. That has to happen right around the entire world.

I get very concerned when I see what I refer to as cosmetic security. I saw some couple days ago, I arrived back in Istanbul couple days ago lunch time. And people are sometimes not taking it all that seriously at the airports. I get really quite concerned when I watch people. I naturally do this as I go through.

CHURCH: All right.

ROSS: These sorts of things have to be intelligence-led. And it's like an onion, you've got to peel it back from the outside in.

[02:21:02] CHURCH: It's a big concern.

Captain Desmond Ross joining us there. Many thanks to you. Your gut feeling that this is perhaps cataclysmic of some nature, we don't know. It's purely speculative. We're trying to piece this together.

We'll take a very short break. We're back in a moment.

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(SPORTS REPORT)

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[02:25:10] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BARNETT: All right, want to get you the latest information on this breaking news and some new information just in to CNN, and this is coming from EgyptAir. They are now confirming that there was, in fact, a distress call made from the plane. We're still trying to specify when that took place. Still trying to put all the pieces together on how much information was provided before the flight disappeared, but this is the first confirmation we have now that there was in fact, a distress call made.

At this moment, Egypt and Greece are searching for the missing plane. 66 people were on board. Reuters is reporting Egyptian aviation officials believe the plane crashed into the sea.

CHURCH: Flight 804 dropped off radar over the Mediterranean as it headed from Paris to Cairo. Conditions were clear and calm when the plane crossed the water. And you can see that locator there, gives you an idea of where they think this plane disappeared. We don't know any more details than that.

BARNETT: But it is certainly a race against time if the plane did, in fact, go down in those waters.

Journalist Elinda Labropoulou joins us on the phone with more on the Greek efforts to help with the search-and-rescue efforts. She is on the phone with us from Athens.

Elinda, what can you tell us about what resources Greece is providing right now?

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST (voice-over): Well, Greece is assisting in the search-and-rescue operations. We know that the plane's last location was over the Mediterranean Sea. We are not clear, obviously, what the final location was. We know that the plane did go over Greek airspace and that the Greek air traffic controllers, at least until now, had never reported any problems while the plane was in Greek airspace. Greece is taking part in these search-and- rescue operations along with Egypt, working very closely together. The Greek authorities have sent a C130 military aircraft to scan the area, and it's also sent an early warning aircraft as well. Greek authorities are currently putting some helicopters on standby on a southern island, which is reasonably closely located to Egypt, closer to where we think the plane may have crossed over. It's there for potential rescue or recovery operations. And we know that Greece has a frigate in the area as well.

So it seems to be the case that Greece is, in many ways, mobilizing, scanning the area, and standing by until we have any news emerging as to what may have happened to this plane.

BARNETT: And there you have it.

Elinda Labropoulou is in Athens for us, for the Greek side of this story.

We've heard from Ian Lee in Cairo and Jim Bittermann in Paris. And the latest information from EgyptAir is that this flight did, in fact, send a distress call.

Stay with CNN as we gather more information on this ongoing breaking story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:31:33] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHURCH: Welcome back. We do want to update you on our breaking news. Greek and Egyptian crews are searching for a missing EgyptAir passenger jet. Flight 804 disappeared several hours ago, shortly after leaving Paris on its way to Cairo. The Airbus A320 may have crashed into the sea. That is according to the Reuters News Agency, citing officials. And the airline says the jet went missing north of the Egyptian coast.

BARNETT: Now it disappeared while flying at an altitude of 37,000 feet. Our Richard Quest telling us this is the safest phase of the flight. So, of course, it's highly unusual.

And as far as the passengers on board, there were two infants and a child among them. 66 people in total. Most of the people were Egyptian and French nationals.

Earlier, CNN spoke with Ahmed Abdel, the vice chairman of the EgyptAir Holding Company, and he gave us a few more crucial details. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED ABDEL, VICE CHAIRMAN, EGYPTAIR HOLDING COMPANY (voice-over): I can give you some facts about the flight. It was EgyptAir 804 from Paris to Cairo. The last contact was at 00:45 Zulu time. It's an Airbus 320. We had 56 passengers on board, two security personnel, two cockpit members, and a five-cabin crew, with a total of 66 passengers, 66 souls on board.

And the aircraft had no recorded problems coming out of Charles de Gaulle Airport. There was no snags reported leaving Charles de Gaulle. The captain on the flight has 6,000-plus hours of flying. The first officer had 4,000-plus hours in flight. There was no special cargo on the flight and no notification of dangerous goods or anything on this flight.

Those are the facts as of now. The Airbus 320 had entered service with EgyptAir on the 3rd of November of 2002.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Egypt is no stranger to headline-making incidents involving planes. Back in November 1985, gunmen hijacked an EgyptAir flight, bound for Athens and diverted the jet to Malta. Dozens of passengers were killed after Egyptian troops raided their plane.

BARNETT: Moving forward to October of 1999, after a stopover in New York, EgyptAir flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 217 people on board. Investigators later concluded that the co-pilot deliberately caused that crash.

And separately from EgyptAir, more recently, a MetroJet flight was downed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. ISIS claimed responsibility, saying it smuggled a bomb on board the Russian plane. While this was not an EgyptAir flight, the crash did raise questions about security at Egypt's airports.

CHURCH: Our international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, joins us now live from London.

Nic, many analysts are starting to fear, as they break this down, they know the phase this plane was in at the time, at 37,000 feet, was cruise mode, so a lot of them now fearing foul play of some sort. What is the word on that, as far as the possibility of terrorism?

[02:35:09] NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, one of the pieces of information that we're just received here at CNN, that you reported a few minutes ago, that in fact, there was a distress call from the aircraft, turns on its head a little bit if you will, some of the early analysis. The early analysis was that the plane was in a safe place in its flight, a cruising altitude, then it suddenly disappeared from the radar. There was no trajectory scene of it descending at any kind of normal rate, which would have given the indication potentially of something catastrophic happening aboard the aircraft without the pilot or the co-pilot's knowledge and ability and time to make a distress call. That was the early information. Now we're being told that there was a distress call, which would then question a little bit, the theory that there could have been some kind of potential explosion from a bomb on board the aircraft.

Why do we say that? Because how would the pilot have known about this with enough time to get out a distress call, without there being a downward trajectory rather than just disappearing from the radar at 37,000 feet. So the information now is beginning to become less clear, if you will. And I think we really have to look back at that MetroJet crash, 31st of October last year, where that Russian plane, flying from Sharm el Sheikh to St. Petersburg was brought down by a bomb that appeared to have been placed in a small tin, soda tin, underneath a chair of an aircraft. If we remember, for months after that, Egyptian authorities, EgyptAir, were -- didn't want to believe it was a bomb, stayed away from that sort of -- there was information that emerged that was confusing and clouding that issue. So I think we need to be very cautious, trying to make an analysis at the moment of what happened.

And it is interesting that we're hearing now this contradictory information that there may have been, in fact, a distress call made from the aircraft. But on the surface, at the moment, something catastrophic has happened. But now it appears that perhaps the pilot was aware of something happening and was able to make that distress call. We don't know what that distress call was. We don't know who that distress call was made to. We know that the aircraft had just passed out of Greek airspace, into Egyptian airspace, which would give the impression, therefore, that the call was made to Egyptian air traffic controllers. Will the audio or transcript be released of that distress call? What was the nature of the distress call? What was said precisely? I think this is going to provide now for investigators key information. But I don't think this is going to stop people at the moment being concerned about potentially was it a bomb, therefore, who was in contact with the aircraft before it left Cairo for Paris, who was in contact with it on the ground in Paris, checking the passenger manifest to see if any of the passengers had any security flags and concerns about them, and obviously, you know, anyone that would have come into physical contact with that aircraft in Paris and Cairo in the past 24 hours would be under very, very close scrutiny at this time.

CHURCH: And, Nic, while we've been talking, we have learned that France is holding an emergency meeting over the missing EgyptAir plane. And we can bring up -- we've got some live pictures there from Charles de Gaulle Airport. This, of course, is where this plane departed, from Paris, to Cairo. There's a lot of concern, we know there were French citizens on board, Egyptian citizens and other nationalities as well.

And now, as Nic Robertson was pointing out, we're learning this distress call was made from this plane. We don't know the nature of this. I'm sure in the coming hours, we will learn more on this.

But just reminding our audience, France holding an emergency meeting in relation to this missing aircraft, EgyptAir, flight 804, and there we saw in Charles de Gaulle Airport.

We'll go back to Nic Robertson now.

So, Nic, this is the thing. The plane departed from Paris. So there was a lot of concern there and Paris is holding this meeting. Their citizens were involved and security at the Paris level was involved here too. We don't know, again, we have to emphasize we don't know the cause of this plane disappearing, but talk to us about what they're likely to be working through in France as they hold this emergency meeting, and try to determine what perhaps happened here and what role France will have played in this?

[02:40:00] ROBERTSON: Well, there are many things that will be happening in France. As we know, Airbus is based there in France. So they will have an interest in trying to acquire any information about that airframe and about anything about the history of this particular aircraft that would give them cause for concern. They -- the French authorities will be looking at the airport for anyone that came in contact with the aircraft, physical contact, were they providing meals, putting those on board the aircraft, was it the cleaning staff that were in contact with them. But perhaps most pertinently, the people that came aboard the aircraft, all went through security screening, presumably at Charles de Gaulle Airport. This is a procedure that we're all familiar with, that would be -- it's hard to imagine how that could be subverted at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

But they will be looking at all those passengers to make sure they know who was getting on board the plane, what their previous histories were, what their connections were, where they were living prior to getting on board the aircraft and also, looking at the video of the security checks that they would have gone through at the airport to see if there were any abnormalities there. Back checking on all those pieces of information.

We have to look at this in the light of the MetroJet crash. That was -- the plane that was brought down by a bomb, it took off from Egyptian soil. And we also have to look at this in the light of Paris being the center of ISIS attacks quite recently, the security and terrorism concerns inside Europe. We have to look at it in that light. But we have no evidence at this time that this was a malicious event of any description. The authorities will be very carefully analyzing any data that will have come from the aircraft during its flight as well, to see if there were any abnormalities. At the moment, we're not aware of any.

Now we're being told and it's significant we're learning about this several hours later, this distress call, this is coming from Egyptian officials, saying there was a distress call made, which throws into a little more question the character of what -- of the nature of the event that happened on board this aircraft. It seems to indicate there would have been a period of time where the pilot or co-pilot had time to say something is wrong. I'm going to make a call about it, which seems to mitigate against a catastrophic-type of event like a large explosion.

That said, the device that brought down the MetroJet plane, the small bomb that was in a small tin can, we have seen similar efforts by terrorist groups recently. Most recently in Somalia where the amount of explosive material placed on board the aircraft in a laptop computer, this was several months ago, was insufficient to cause the aircraft to crash.

So it cannot be ruled out at this stage that there was an explosion, a nefarious explosion on board this aircraft that still gave the pilot time to take a call. But, again, at this time, there's nothing to indicate that it's a bomb. And obviously, French and Egyptian authorities will be looking very closely at any data coming from the aircraft.

CHURCH: Yes, we just don't know at this stage. But we do know this is new information, learning that this distress call was made. Because we were learning earlier that it wasn't the case. They hadn't confirmed either way.

Many thanks to Nic Robertson, joining us live from London.

We'll take a very short break. We'll continue our breaking news on the missing EgyptAir flight 804. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:47:08] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHURCH: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage. We want to update you now, an urgent search for EgyptAir flight 804. It disappeared early Thursday as it traveled from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board. Reuters reports that airline and Egyptian aviation officials believe the plane probably crashed into the Mediterranean.

BARNETT: Yeah, you have the route highlighted there for you on the screen.

Now EgyptAir is currently saying there was a distress signal detected in the general vicinity where the plane disappeared. That's new information this hour, but it is not known if it came from the plane. An important detail, the Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000 feet, meant to be the safest phase of the flight, when it disappeared. Egypt's armed forces are searching for the plane with help from Greece.

We want to connect now with Ian Lee, who is standing by in Cairo, Egypt, the destination of this flight.

Ian, the new information being that there was a distress call made from this plane. What can you tell us about that and the search under way for what could be survivors in the Mediterranean?

LEE (voice-over): Errol, starting with the distress call, what we're hearing from the vice president of EgyptAir, he's telling us that the Egyptian armed forces detected a distress signal, but he said it could possibly not be from the plane. Right now, he's telling us that they are going to -- they are not going to confirm if the plane has crashed or not. They're still searching the area, but presumably, six hours after this plane has been missing, very unlikely that it had any other fate than it has crashed. But the captain also saying that, technically, this distress signal, it could be sent from the plane after it crashes. Again, he's not saying that it crashes, about if it did, a distress signal could possibly be sent out. But we know right now that Egyptian armed forces, including the air force and the navy, are at the site of where the last radar signal was. They're searching that area.

And I think it's important to point out, when the MetroJet crashed, killing 200 people on board, that plane blown up by ISIS, it was the Egyptian air force that found the plane, their jets flying over that area. So, likely, again, same scenario. You'll have jets flying over the Mediterranean, a massive search operation under way, including the Greek. But right now, their main focus is trying to find that plane. And if this was a distress signal, trying to pinpoint that exact location, to see what exactly is there.

[02:50:21] BARNETT: All right. So just to clarify that information, Ian, because as we've mentioned, these are early hours of this breaking story. We're about four to five hours into when this flight disappeared. The official you're in contact with, Ahmed Abdel, is not confirming that the flight has crashed, but he is noting that a distress signal has been detected close to where this flight was last detected on radar. That could have been from the plane. It could be from -- some are reporting that it perhaps is a distress beacon. But he's saying some sort of distress signal, close to the last location of this plane.

LEE: That's correct. So right now, from what we're hearing from the vice president of EgyptAir is that they are not confirming that this is a crash. They did receive a distress beacon, a distress signal, from the vicinity of the area. They do not know if it's from the plane. It could also be from a ship in the area. They just don't know. But he did mention that it could be, if the plane did crash, that it is possible to detect a signal after that happened. So a lot of variables here.

Also, it's important to note that the timing is really crucial on this. The plane disappeared from radar at roughly 2:30 a.m. local time here in Cairo. They're saying that this signal was detected at 4:26 a.m. So almost two hours after it disappeared from radar they received this distress call. So that is another variable to determine exactly what that means. Really, Errol, a big question mark. How could they receive a distress call, if it is from the plane, two hours after it went missing?

BARNETT: All of these details slowly coming out from officials. And you are confirming that the Egyptian navy, the Egyptian air force, are close or at the location where they believe this flight possibly crashed and are actively looking for survivors, is that accurate?

LEE: That's correct. The Egyptian air force, the Egyptian navy, the Egyptian Coast Guard, all resources available are searching for this plane. We are told from the Egyptian military as well as EgyptAir that they are on site of the area where they received the last signal from the radar. They are searching this area. We do not have any more information about if they found anything, if they found any debris or any survivors. We just know that they are on site and they are receiving help from the Greeks.

BARNETT: Ian Lee is in Cairo for us. It's approaching 9:00 a.m. there, day break.

They are searching 280 kilometers north of Egypt's coastline, Rosemary. That's what happens at these early stages of a breaking story. Officials will report small bits of information as we try and make sense of it, but it still looks very ominous for the passengers on that flight right now.

CHURCH: It does.

And weather has been something we've looked at. We know that weather more than likely did not play a role when it came to the disappearance of this plane, but it may play a very big role in the search-and- rescue effort.

We want to turn to our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, who joins us with a look at the weather ahead.

Because this is critical, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're absolutely correct, Rosemary. It doesn't appear that weather played a factor, as the skies were clear overhead when the last reported point of communication with EgyptAir ms 804 took place. But we managed to dig a little bit deeper on this flight path from this particular plane that everyone has so many questions about. And I want to zoom in on this particular area, the eastern Mediterranean. What we've found could provide at least a few more clues, perhaps some more information, perhaps more questions than anything. But we have been discussing, we've heard it several times through the course of the past couple of hours, the immediacy, the abrupt nature of how we lost contact with that plane. It may be difficult to see, but the pink line is the last flight path of ms 804. And notice how quickly it actually stops. I've covered previous air tragedies before. And when we look at something like this, a lot of times we often see -- we don't see this abrupt nature with this direct end in communication with the plane. We'll often see something trailing towards the surface of the earth. So something's happened here. There was an immediate abrupt end to the communication. Maybe a loss of power, maybe there was some sort of complete failure that took place on the airplane. Or perhaps, another question here to consider, were the communication systems turned off? That's for other people to contemplate, but I think that's an interesting thing to note. So we're going to get into that. And then obviously, the search-and- rescue efforts, assuming that this plane has unfortunately, landed over the eastern Mediterranean. At the moment, the water temperatures range 18 to 22 degrees Celsius, that's in the 60s for our domestic viewers, in terms of Fahrenheit. And when we talk about surviving in cold water situations, it all depends on if you're fit, if you're young, or if you're elderly. That does play a huge role here, depending on how much time. But it ranges anywhere from two hours, to upwards of over a day and a half of surviving in temperatures just like this. So this is something we're going to continue to consider. The weather, however, not a problem at this moment in time but going forward, we do expect the winds and the clouds to pick up across this region -- Rosemary, Errol?

[02:56:08] BARNETT: Derek, we appreciate that. Thanks very much.

So there's a certain amount of new information we've learned this hour. There was some type of distress call made from the aircraft in the vicinity of where it dropped off radar.

CHURCH: But they're not even sure necessarily that that came from the plane.

BARNETT: Right.

CHURCH: So there's still a lot of questions.

All right, you are watching breaking news on CNN. We will continue this in the next hour. Please stay with us.

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