EgyptAir MS804 vanishes at 35,000 feet

[Fragile Bird]

I know we need to wait for more facts, but when a flight vanishes off the radar at 37,000 feet and satellite images show a flash, the loss of the plane and the lives of all the people on board certainly seems to indicate an act of terrorism has been committed.

My deepest condolences to the families and friends of the passengers and the crew.  66 lives lost.

Wreckage has been spotted off the coast of Greece.

[maarsen]

The flight was from Paris to Cairo. Security in France should have been tight enough to keep bombs and armed terrorists off the plane. Equipment failure is a possibility.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Airport security isn't nearly as good as you'd hope or think. 

[maarsen]

I have always thought that the annoyance factor alone would keep potential terrorists at bay.

[princess_snow]

Just got up to this news, just horrifying.  

[HexMachina]

Greece seem to have reported that the wreckage off the coast wasn't from the plane. 

[Robin Of House Hill]

Well, they've now found wreckage and body parts, so it's apparent that the plane went down.  Everyone is thinking terrorism, but I question that.  No one has claimed responsibility, which seems odd if the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize.  And why would terrorists target a red eye flight carrying relatively few people. I'd be interested in knowing how many hours on the airframe and the maintenance record of the plane.

[Lordsteve666]

The plane had around 48,000 hrs flight time, entered service in 2003. That's from the BBC site.

According to their site satellite images of an apparent oil slick are being check out. Plus a merchant ship apparently saw some sort of fire in the sky, but that could be anything really.

There was one expert they interviewed who was a pilot and he said it might have made a sharp turn to avoid something on the same flightpath, it would be a way to avoid a collision without descending into more "traffic". The spiral it made after that looks like it lost control for some reason. I've heard everything from a fault on board to some sort of disturbance on the flight deck as theories for that.

[maarsen]

18 hours ago, Robin Of House Hill said:

Well, they've now found wreckage and body parts, so it's apparent that the plane went down.  Everyone is thinking terrorism, but I question that.  No one has claimed responsibility, which seems odd if the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize.  And why would terrorists target a red eye flight carrying relatively few people. I'd be interested in knowing how many hours on the airframe and the maintenance record of the plane.

There was a Swissair  crash in Nova Scotia years back due to faulty wiring. As you said, no claims of terrorism yet so could be mechanical. 

[Robin Of House Hill]

ACARS data shows smoke in a forward lavatory, the avionics compartment below the cockpit and finally, a loss of control.  Airbus uses "fly by wire", rather than the older hydraulic and mechanical control lines.  When that function is lost, there is almost nothing a pilot can do.