Ships and planes have been searching for the remains of an EgyptAir plane that is believed to have crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Greek authorities have declared that a search aircraft located two orange flames floating south-east of Crete, a Greek island.
The plane was going to Cairo from Paris, carrying 56 passengers, including a Brit, a child and two babies alongside many others. There were also three security staff and seven crew members.
All 66 people on board are feared dead.
The scheduled flight left Charles de Gaulle at 11.09pm on Wednesday. The last signal was picked up by Greek air traffic control at 2.27am, but the country’s civil aviation ministry said that the pilot didn’t answer as the plane headed in the direction of Egyptian airspace.
Egyptian authorities lost contact with the flight at 2.30am, 45 minutes prior to its predicted landing time at Cairo International Airport.
The Greek defence minister has said: “The plane suddenly started veering to the right and left just before it disappeared from radar.”
The aircraft dropped by 22,000ft to 15,000ft before contact was lost at around 10,000ft.
There is an ongoing investigation of a report from the captain of a merchant ship who saw “a flame in the sky” at the time of the planes disappearance, off the island of Karpathos.
Egypt, Greece and France have sent military planes, helicopters and ships to the area but no wreckage has been discovered.
Officials from EgyptAir have said: “Egyptian military received an emergency signal from the aircraft around 90 minutes after it disappeared but they received no distress call.”
The signal is thought to be an automatic communication from an Emergency Locator Transmitter, which is designed to alert authorities to unexpected decline of altitude or impact.
Many countries, including Britain have offered assistance with the continuing search for the plane’s debris in the Mediterranean Sea.
French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls said: “We are in close contact with the Egyptian authorities, both civil and military.”
