BREAKING NEWS – Body parts, seats and luggage are found by MS804 search crews: Horror for relatives as discovery of EgyptAir jet debris dashes hopes their loved ones may have survived

Body parts, seats and luggage have been found floating in the Mediterranean in the hunt for EgyptAir flight MS804, it emerged today.

The announcement by the Greek defence minister will be a devastating blow to relatives who are holding out a glimmer of hope their loved ones may have survived.

The Egyptian military said it discovered wreckage around 180 miles north of the coastal city of Alexandria and was sweeping the area for the plane's black box recorders, which could solve the mystery of the crash. 

Egyptian President Adbel Fattah al-Sisi, meanwhile, offered condolences to families of those on board, amounting to Cairo's official confirmation of their deaths.

Although fingers pointed towards Islamist militants who blew up another airliner over Egypt just seven months ago, no group had claimed responsibility more than 24 hours after the disappearance of flight MS804, an Airbus A320 that was flying from Paris to Cairo. 

Three French investigators and a technical expert from Airbus arrived in Cairo early on Friday to help investigate the fate of the missing plane, airport sources said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said yesterday that it was too early to rule out any explanation for the disaster, but the country's aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure.

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A video image released by the Egyptian Defense Ministry shows a ship during the search in the Mediterranean Sea for missing EgyptAir Flight MS804 plane which crashed after disappearing from the radar in the early hours of Thursday morning while carrying 66 people

An Egyptian plane and ship search the Mediterranean for missing EgyptAir flight 804 plane which crashed in mysterious circumstances

An Egyptian plane searches for debris and personal belongins from the missing EgyptAir plane which crashed in the Mediterranean Sea

An engineer stands in front of a C-130 HAUP of the Hellenic Air Force which took part and is on stand by in the search operation

Friday's announcement that debris had been found followed earlier confusion about whether wreckage had been located. Greek searchers found some material on Thursday, but the airline later said this was not from its plane.

While there was no official explanation of the cause of the crash, suspicion immediately fell on Islamist militants who have been fighting against Egypt's government since Sisi toppled an elected Islamist leader in 2013. 

In October, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian jetliner that exploded after taking off from an Egyptian tourist resort. Russian investigators blamed a bomb smuggled on board.

Last year's crash already devastated Egypt's tourist industry, one of the main sources of foreign exchange for a country of 80 million people, and another similar attack would crush hopes of it recovering.

While most governments were cautious about jumping to conclusions, U.S. Republican candidate for president Donald Trump tweeted swiftly after the plane's disappearance: 'Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant?'

Many hours later his likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton also said it appeared to be an act of terrorism, although she said an investigation would have to determine the details.

Officials from a number of U.S. agencies told Reuters that a U.S. review of satellite imagery so far had not produced any signs of an explosion. 

They said the United States had not ruled out any possible causes for the crash, including mechanical failure, terrorism or a deliberate act by the pilot or crew.

Investigation: The Egyptian army has reported finding wreckage and personal belongings from the missing jet around 180 miles north of the city of Alexandria after it was apparently blown out of the sky near Greece in a suspected terror attack

Amid uncertainty about what brought down the plane, Los Angeles International Airport became the first major U.S. air transportation hub to say it was stepping up security measures.

In Britain, a spokesman for the David Cameron said Whitehall officials from different departments will be working throughout the day and into the weekend on the disaster and will update secretaries of state and the Prime Minister on all developments.

However, the Government is refusing to discuss security procedures until the cause of the crash is known. 

The military has sent a vessel to follow the flight path of the plane and is heading south west towards where wreckage has reportedly been found.

The RAF sent a C130 plane which completed a surveillance flight last night and a second flight is ongoing.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch has also offered its assistance to the investigation and is ready to offer support if required.  

Meanwhile, heartbreaking details are beginning to emerge of the lives cut short on board the doomed flight.

Air hostess Samar Ezz Eldin, 27, had uploaded a prophetic image of a plane crashing into the sea on her Facebook page in September 2014 just four months after she started working at Egypt's national carrier.

It shows an air hostess dressed smartly in wet clothes pulling a carry-on suitcase out of the water as a passenger jet plunges into the sea behind her. 

Other victims identified include the captain who celebrated a promotion just four days earlier, the co-pilot whose family sacrificed everything so he could learn to fly and a cabin manager who gave up a successful TV acting career to become an air hostess. 

Captain Mohamed Said Ali Ali Shoukair, 37, from Giza, had invited his colleagues and former flying school classmates to a huge dinner to celebrate his promotion to the rank of senior pilot, MailOnline can reveal.

Ahmed Adly, of the Egyptian Pilots Association, told MailOnline: 'I can confirm that Mohamed Said Ali Ali Shoukair was the captain of the Egyptair MS804 that has been lost.'

Another friend Ahmed Mashaal said: 'God bless you Shoukair. I last saw him four days ago at a party.

'He invited his whole colleagues from EgyptAir and fellow students from the flying school to a huge dinner to celebrate his promotion four days ago [on Monday]. He was celebrating his promotion.' 

Captain Shoukair was a very experienced pilot with 6275 flying hours, 2101 of those hours flying an Airbus 806. He was not married and did not have any children. 

EgyptAir stewardess Samar Ezz Eldin (left) posted a picture of an air hostess in front of a passenger jet crashing into the sea behind her (right) on her Facebook page. The 27-year-old was among the first passengers and crew on board Flight MS804 to be named

Celebration: Captain Mohamed Said Ali Ali Shoukair had been promoted just four days before the crash, MailOnline can reveal

Captain Shoukair (right) with colleagues. Air traffic controllers said he was in 'a good mood and gave thanks in Greek' when he was in last contact around 25 minutes before the jet fell out of the sky in a suspected terror attack

His co-pilot Mohammad Mamdouh Assem had dreamed of flying planes since he was five years old and his mother had put all her savings into helping him achieved his lifelong goal. 

According to friends, co-pilot Mohammad Mamdouh Assem's lifelong dream was to cruise the skies – with his mother spending all her savings on sending him to aviation school.

Childhood friend Omar Nasef told The Daily Beast: 'He wanted to be a pilot since he was five. He was an unbelievable person, social.'

His mother tragically died a few years ago from cancer and the family was still struggling to cope with her loss when news broke that he had perished on the doomed flight.

'His mom put all her savings towards his education,' Nasef said. 'The academy and all that, and it's very expensive in Egypt. That was a big sacrifice.'

'All that I know is that he loved flying. That was his dream job and that's it,' he said.

Cabin manager Mervat Zakaria was also revealed to be a former TV actress who had been promoted to her position just one month before the crash.

Ms Zakaria had joined the national airline carrier in 1986 after giving up a successful acting career.

She had starred as a troubled teenager, Hala Awad, who had lost her mother in the hit Egyptian drama Abu El Ela El-Bashery.

The show was named after the character of the widower who was bringing up his daughters on his own.

But Ms Zakaria, who is believed to be married with a daughter, quit before the second series to take up a career as an air hostess for EgyptAir.

Meanwhile, it emerged today that the wife of British passenger Richard Osman had warned him to be careful whenever he travelled abroad on his work, but he laughed off her fears, telling her: 'It is never going to happen to me.'

The geologist had celebrated becoming a father for the second time with wife Aureilie, 36, just three weeks before the crash. 

He had been flying regularly to Egypt with his job with Australian gold mining firm Centamin Ltd- often taking the plane from Paris to Cairo.

His brother Alastair said: 'Aureilie had warned him to be careful but he took the view that it's never going to happen to you. He just laughed it off.

'We kept in touch regularly and I would speak to him a couple times a month but he never mentioned the possible threat of terrorism on his flights across the Mediterranean to me.

'But the family was worried because ISIS and groups like them don't think that any of their victims have family members or a past or a history of hopes and dreams.'

The family of co-pilot Mohammad Mamdouh Assem had sacrificed everything so could fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot

Cabin manager Mervat Zakaria (pictured, left, and with her daughter, right) gave up a successful acting career to become an air hostess

Mervat Zakaria starred as a troubled teenager, Hala Awad, who had lost her mother in the hit Egyptian drama Abu El Ela El-Bashery

Mr Osman had celebrated the birth of his second daughter Olympe just three weeks ago and was travelling to Egypt for work.

Speaking yesterday, Alistair said: 'I still can't take it in I got a call from our sister first thing this morning and I'm still in shock.

'Richard was so happy at the birth of his second daughter, and yet weeks later he is no longer with us - it's an absolute tragedy.'

Mr Osman was also father to a 14-month-old girl called Victios.

His two daughters are being looked after by Aureilie in Paris, where the couple have a home.

Alastair, 36, a biochemistry student at Swansea University, said: 'Of all the family I would've thought Richard would have been the last to go.'

'He was incredibly fit and a workaholic and since leaving university he has never stopped.

'He was really happy about having the baby and was looking forward to enjoying a lovely family life with his two girls.'

He is believed to be a dual citizen of Australia, following a statement issued by the Australian government saying that one of those presumed dead is a UK-Australia dual national.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop declined to give additional details, including details on the passenger's identity.  

Family man: Richard Osman was among the 66 victims on board the jet. His brother has described his 'delirious happiness' after the birth of his second daughter just three weeks ago. Mr Osman is pictured here with his French-born wife Aureilie and his first daughter Victios

Happier times: Mr Osman's brother has spoken of his 'shock' at hearing the news of the plane crash this morning. Mr Osman, a geologist who was travelling to Egypt for work, leaves behind a wife (pictured here on their wedding day) and two infant daughters

Future: Mr Osman's brother Alastair described the crash as an 'absolute tragedy', adding that Mr Osman had been looking forward to a 'lovely future' with his wife and two young daughters

Passenger: A Canadian woman among those on board the plane has been named as Marwa Hamdy (pictured)

The 56 passengers on board included one Briton, 30 Egyptians, 15 French, one Belgian, one Iraqi, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi Arabian, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and at least one Canadian. 

A Canadian woman among the passengers has also been named as Marwa Hamdy.

Other crew members included air-hostess Yara Hany, stewards Atef Lotfy and Haietham Elazizi and EgyptAir security officers Mahmoud Ahmed, Ahmed Mohamed Magdy and Mohamed Abd El Menem.

The search is continuing for missing EgyptAir flight 804, which disappeared from the radar while carrying 66 passengers and crew from Paris to Cairo. 

Authorities are scouring a wide area south of the Greek island of Crete on Friday to search for wreckage, over 24 hours after the Airbus 320 lost contact.

The Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos says that the plane swerved wildly before plummeting into the sea.

The Egyptian military says that no distress call was received from the pilot. The country's aviation minister Sherif Fathi says the likelihood the plane was brought down by a terror attack is 'higher than the possibility of a technical failure.' 

The distressed relatives of those on board have spent the night in a hotel in Cairo while they await news.

Three French investigators and a technical expert from Airbus arrived at Cairo International Airport early Friday morning to help investigate the fate of a missing jet, airport sources said.

The French investigators are part of the French civil aviation ministry's office of investigations and analysis, the sources said. 

Yesterday, EgyptAir retracted its claims that the wreckage of the downed Flight MS804 had been discovered floating in the Mediterranean Sea as the mystery surrounding the missing passenger jet deepens.

It comes as U.S. authorities say they have so far been unable to find any indication that an explosion took place on board the plane before it plunged 22,000ft into the water with 66 people on board. 

Flight MS804 was travelling from Paris to Cairo when it vanished from radar 10 miles into Egyptian airspace at 00.30am GMT without making a distress call. 

Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos said the Airbus A320 made 'sudden swerves' in mid-air, lurching 90 degrees to the left then 360 degrees to the right. It then dropped from 37,000 feet to 15,000ft before the signal was lost at around 10,000 feet.

Security experts, ministers and former air accident investigators said all the evidence pointed to the plane being targeted in a terrorist attack. 

But U.S. officials have cast doubt on these claims, stating that they have so far found no evidence of an explosion on board.

The ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said there are conflicting reports about the EgyptAir plane during its last minutes of the flight.

Nor is there anything yet to confirm whether terrorism, structural failure or something else was the cause, he added.

'We're working with the French to try to figure out if there is any information we have that could shed light on any of the passengers, but there's nothing yet to confirm the cause of the plane crash,' said California Rep. Adam Schiff.

He said the plane did seem to have broken apart in mid-air, but the reason was unclear. 

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said the possibility of a terror attack was a 'stronger' possibility than technical failure.

Meanwhile, EgyptAir has retracted its earlier statement that wreckage of the plane had been found off the Greek island of Karpathos.  

Egyptian officials are now taking a more cautious line, similar to that of Greek authorities, and are saying they 'stand corrected' and it 'is not our aircraft'.   

The head of the Greek air safety authority earlier insisted that wreckage found in the Mediterranean close to where the jet is thought to have crashed 'does not come from a plane'.

'Up to now the analysis of the debris indicates that it does not come from a plane, my Egyptian counterpart also confirmed to me that it was not yet proven that the debris came from the EgyptAir flight when we were last in contact around 1745 GMT,' said Athanasios Binis.   

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered the civil aviation ministry, the army's search and rescue centre, the navy, and the air force to take all necessary measures to locate debris from the EgyptAir plane.

They will join French, Greek and U.S. forces in the search. 

In a statement issued by his office, Sisi also ordered an investigative committee formed by the civil aviation ministry to immediately start investigating the causes of the plane's disappearance.

Photographs emerged earlier of what was claimed to be debris from the plane as search vessels reported seeing plastic objects including lifejackets and seats floating in the sea around 230 miles south of the Greek islands of Crete and Karpathos.  

The images of the debris were posted on Facebook by Tarek Wahba, who is understood to be the captain of Egyptian container vessel, Maersk Ahram. 

He wrote: 'Been finding life jackets and debris including chair to the plane.'

The ship was among a number of vessels sent to the area to help with the search. 

A Greek frigate also reported spotting two large plastic objects floating in the sea 230 miles south of the island of Crete.

They appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red and were spotted close to an area where an emergency transponder signal had been emitted. 

Greek military officials say a Greek C-130 military transport plane is still participating in the search for debris from the EgyptAir jet, but a frigate initially sent to the area has been recalled. 

The same officials say all potential debris located so far in the sea has been spotted by Egyptian aircraft.  

Relatives of passengers on board the EgyptAir flight cry at Cairo Airport as they try to receive information on their loved ones

Loss: Relatives of passengers on the missing EgyptAir flight break down as they console each other at Cairo International Airport in Egypt

Devastated: A relative of one of the passengers on board EgyptAir flight MS804 weeps as she makes a phone call (left) and wipes away tears (right) as she waits for news at Charles de Gualle Airport near Paris where the doomed plane took off hours earlier

Despair: An Egyptian woman whose brother was on board the jet reacts as she leaves the EgyptAir service building at Cairo Airport

Sorrow: A woman holds her head as she waits for more news outside the Egyptair in-flight service building at Cairo International Airport

If confirmed to be a terror attack, the disaster would deal another hammer blow to Egypt's crippled tourism industry just months after a Russian Metrojet plane was brought down in the Sinai peninsula by a bomb planted at Sharm el-Sheikh airport. 

The 56 passengers on board included one Briton, 30 Egyptians, 15 French, one Belgian, one Iraqi, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi Arabian, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and at least one Canadian. There were 10 crew members including three security guards. 

A Canadian woman among the passengers has also been named as Marwa Hamdy. The nation's Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion issued a statement claiming two Canadians were on board the flight. 

Ms Dion said: 'Based on the information currently available, Global Affairs Canada confirms that two Canadian citizens are among the passengers on this flight.' 

The airline has said that Ms Hamdy was the sole Canadian on the flight.

U.S. government officials were working on an initial theory the jet was downed by a bomb, two U.S. officials told CNN, although they cautioned that hypothesis could change. 

The U.S. State Department has not yet issued a travel warning to Egypt, according to spokesman John Kirby in Washington.

He told reporters that it is too early to make any definite decisions and that he is 'not aware that we recorded, saw, photographed or have possession of any electronic indications about what happened'.    

The head of Russia's top domestic security agency, Alexander Bortnikov, also claimed it was 'in all likelihood it was a terror attack'.

Meanwhile, Jean-Paul Troadec, the former chief of the BEA national investigation unit, said the lack of a live emergency alert meant it was almost certainly destroyed in a terror attack.

He told Europe 1 radio station in Paris: 'A technical problem, a fire or a failed motor do not cause an instant accident and the team has time to react. 

'The team said nothing, they did not react, so it was very probably a brutal event and we can certainly think about an attack.'

Their comments came after a merchant ship captain reported seeing a 'flame in the sky' over the Mediterranean. 

ISIS has been waging a deadly insurgency against Egyptian security forces and last October claimed the bombing of a Russian airliner flying home holidaymakers from the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh which killed all 224 people on board. 

The flight was the aircraft's fifth of the day, having also flown to the Eritrean capital of Asmara, the Tunisian capital Tunis and Brussels in Belgium. 

French President Francois Hollande said nothing had been ruled out about the cause of the crash.  

Speaking at the Elysee Palace in Paris, he said: 'When we have the truth we need to draw all the conclusions. At this stage, we must give priority to solidarity toward the families (of the victims).'  

The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the accident.

The prosecutor said in a statement that its collective accident department opened the investigation with the national gendarme service, adding that 'no hypothesis is favoured or ruled out at this stage'.  

In the minutes and hours after the crash, devastated relatives gathered at Charles De Gaulle and Cairo Airports, weeping and comforting each other as waited for news of their loved ones.

The British Foreign Office said it was in contact with the family of the British national who was feared dead.  

Grief: Relatives of missing EgyptAir passengers comfort each other in front of the airliner's office at Cairo International Airport

Wait: Relatives and friends of passengers on the EgyptAir react as they wait outside the Egyptair in-flight service building at Cairo Airport

Agony: A woman reacts as she waits outside the EgyptAir service building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport

Prime Minister David Cameron told LBC Radio: 'I absolutely feel for them [the families]. This is obviously a dreadful event. We don't know very much right now about what's happened. 

'We know that there was one British national on the plane. It looks as if it has gone down in the Mediterranean.' 

'One of our ships RFA Royal Fleet Auxiliary Mounts Bay is nearby and so we've sent it to the area, but I think it's too early to speculate about what the cause was.   

'We simply don't know but all the experts are talking to each other and trying to work out what has happened and when we know more, we'll be able to say more.' 

The Airbus A320 left the French capital's Charles De Gaulle Airport at 9.09pm GMT last night before coming down off the Greek island of Karpathos ten miles into Egyptian airspace at around 00.30am GMT. It was scheduled to arrive at Cairo Airport at 1.15am GMT. 

EgyptAir first reported on the disappearance of the flight, tweeting: 'An informed source at EGYPTAIR stated that Flight no MS804, which departed Paris at 9.09pm (GMT) heading to Cairo, has disappeared from radar.' 

Greece's Civil Aviation Authority CAA said the flight entered the Greek air traffic control area (FIR) at 2.24am Greek time (11.24am GMT).  

It was identified and approved on its flight course before passing into the next section of air traffic control where it was approved by the controller for the exit point of the Greek FIR.

The CAA said the last communication traffic controllers had with the EgyptAir pilot at around 00.05am found him in good spirits.

It said the pilot 'was in a good mood and gave thanks in Greek when authorised to exit the Athens flight information region'. 

EGYPTAIR JET HAD TRAVELLED TO TERROR HOTSPOTS IN BRUSSELS, TUNIS AND ERITREA HOURS BEFORE CRASH

The EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean had flown to terror hotspots in Tunisia, Eritrea and Belgium in the days before the disaster, it has emerged.

The travel log of the Airbus A320 will likely form a major part of the investigation into the crash which experts say was most likely caused by a terror attack.

Internet site FlightRadar24 indicates the jet travelled to Tunis, Brussels and the Eritrean capital of Asmara in the two days before, leaving open the possibility that an explosive device could have been planted aboard prior to its arrival in France.

All destinations have been targeted by terror attacks or plagued by jihadist uprisings in recent months.

Tour of terror: Flight radar data showed how the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean had travelled to Tunis, Cairo, Eritrea and Brussels, all area targeted by Islamist militants

Brussels Airport and the city's Metro station were targeted in March in ISIS suicide attacks that killed 32 people. 

Those attacks have been linked to the same cell that killed 130 people in a November massacre in Paris, where flight MS804 took off last night.

More than 20 people were also killed in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, in March last year when two Islamist militants stormed the Bardo Museum.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian authorities said last week that they had thwarted a terror attack by Eritrean jihadists who trained and armed in Asmara.

If a bombing is established, the question for investigators will be how a device was possibly smuggled aboard a flight taking off from France's busiest airport, Paris Charles de Gaulle, where security has been on high alert since last year's jihadist attacks.

Aeronautics expert Gerard Feldzer said: 'A bomb placed on board at (Paris) or in Cairo is always possible because it's difficult to make your airport 100 per cent watertight, even in an airport with such tight surveillance as Roissy (Charles de Gaulle).' 

Shock: A woman reacts as she waits outside the Egyptair in-flight service building where relatives and friends of passengers who were flying in an EgyptAir plane that vanished from radar en route from Paris to Cairo are being held at Cairo International Airport

Upset: Relatives and friends of passengers who were on the EgyptAir plane leave the EgyptAir in-flight service building at Cairo Airport

Terror: Relatives gather at Cairo Airport. Among the 56 passengers on board the plane were 30 Egyptian nationals, 15 French, two Iraqis, one Briton, Belgian, Kuwaiti, Saudi, Sudanese, Chadian, Portuguese, Algerian and a Canadian

Air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilot again at 00.27am for the handover of the plane to Cairo's area of responsibility, but 'despite repeated calls, the aircraft did not respond'.

Air traffic control called on the emergency frequency and again there was no response.

At 00.29am GMT, the aircraft was over the exit point of the Athens FIR, and at 00.29.40am GMT, it vanished from radar. 

The Greek authority said the military was asked for help in case the plane could be located on a military radar, but there was no sign of it. 

Search and rescue operations then kicked in 00.45am.   

Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted an airport official as saying the pilot did not send a distress call and that last contact with the plane was made 10 minutes before it disappeared from radar.

EgyptAir said the plane sent an emergency signal, possibly from an emergency beacon attached to the plane, at 2.26am GMT two hours after it vanished. 

In water crashes, an underwater beacon attached to the aircraft's flight recorders starts to emit a signal or ping which helps search and rescue teams to locate the crash and find the black boxes.   

Egyptian military aircraft and navy ships were taking part in a search operation off Egypt's Mediterranean coast to locate the debris of the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew members. 

Greece also joined the search and rescue operation, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault offered to send military planes and boats to join the Egyptian search for wreckage.

'We are at the disposition of the Egyptian authorities with our military capacities, with our planes, our boats to help in the search for this plane,' he said.  

'We cannot rule anything out': Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail talks to reporters at Cairo International Airport. He said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash

On high alert: A French officer of the Police aux Frontieres (Borders Police) stands guard at Charles de Gaulle airport

Guard: Police take up position at Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle airport, after the EgyptAir flight vanished from radar

Worry: The EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle was empty first thing this morning after reports of the disappearance began to surface

He spoke after French President Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace.

Later, the French military said a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants had been diverted to help search for the EgyptAir plane. 

Military spokesman Colonel Gilles Jaron said the jet is joining the Egypt-led search effort and the French navy may send another plane and a ship to the zone.  

Mr Hollande has spoken with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi by telephone and they agreed to 'closely cooperate to establish the circumstances' in which the EgyptAir flight disappeared.

The government statement cited Hollande as saying he shares the anxiety of families.  

Speaking on RTL radio, he said the Paris airport authority has opened a crisis centre to support the families coming to Charles de Gaulle Airport. 

He said 'no theory can be ruled out'.

Search and rescue teams have been sent to a specific location believed to be 40 miles from the Egyptian coast. 

Greece has also joined the search and rescue operation.

Two aircraft, one C-130 and one early warning aircraft have been dispatched, officials at the Hellenic national defence general staff said.

They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.

Ahmed Abdel, the vice-chairman of EgyptAir holding company, said no distress signal had been sent, as far as he knew. 

He added that there had been no reported problems with the plane when it left Paris. 

The captain of the plane, Abdel said, had more than 6,000 flying hours. This includes 2,000 on an A320.

He also said there was no special cargo on board and the airline was not informed about any dangerous objects on board. 

As the plane was in Egyptian airspace, their air traffic controllers should have been in contact with the flight team.

However, it does not necessarily mean the plane was over land at the time, as Egyptian air space stretches over the Mediterranean Sea. 

According to flight schedules, it was the plane's fifth flight of the day. 

Shortly after news of the disappearance broke, the Egyptair website crashed.

The Airbus A320 is a short-to-mid range aircraft and is one of the most commonly used in the world that first entered circulation in 1986. 

It has a capacity of 150 passengers and a range of more than 3,000 miles.  

An EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus in March. A man who admitted to the hijacking and is described by Cypriot authorities as 'psychologically unstable' is in custody in Cyprus.

The incident renewed security concerns months after a Russian passenger plane was blown out of the sky over the Sinai Peninsula. 

The Russian plane crashed in Sinai on October 31, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the extremist Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for planting it.

With its archaeological sites and Red Sea resorts, Egypt is a traditional destination for Western tourists. 

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 1990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard.

U.S. investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downward. 

But Egyptian officials rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting some mechanical reason caused the crash.

EgyptAir has provided the following numbers for those wanting more information or who may have families on board:

080077770000 from any landline in Egypt

+ 202 25989320 outside Egypt or any mobile in Egypt

FRENCH SPY CHIEF WARNED COUNTRY WAS 'CLEARLY BEING TARGETED BY ISIS' A WEEK BEFORE EGYPTAIR CRASH

The head of France's internal intelligence agency had warned the country was being 'clearly targeted' by ISIS a week before the Paris to Cairo flight took off.

It has now emerged that Patrick Calvar, the head of France's DGSI agency, told a parliamentary committee on national defence in Paris on May 10 that ISIS was planning 'a new form of attack'. 

France was targeted twice last year – with the Charlie Hebdo attack in January and the Paris attacks in November – and the French security forces are on a state of high alert.

Concern: Patrick Calvar (pictured), head of French internal intelligence, warned last week that ISIS was planning new attacks on France

Mr Calvar was quoted in The Local as saying: 'We risk being confronted with a new form of attack: a terrorist campaign characterised by leaving explosive devices in places where big crowds gather, multiplying this type of action to create a climate of panic.'

He made no mention of attacks on aircraft.

But he said he believed France was 'the country most threatened' by ISIS, which is often known as Daesh, and also warned that Al-Qaeda remained a threat and was champing at the bit to 'restore its image' as a major player, especially in the Maghreb and the Arabian peninsula.

Missing: A closer locator map shows where the flight lost contact with radars around 170 miles from the the Egyptian coast

Hunt for MS804: Several vessels are seen on radar joining the search for the doomed Airbus A320 in the Mediterranean

The airline then tweeted that there were 56 passengers on board and 10 crew members 

The airline revealed that the flight had gone missing after posting this Tweet early on Thursday morning 

They then confirmed that the flight lost contact with air traffic controllers 10 miles inside Egyptian airspace