Until the wreckage of the plane is found, it is near impossible to say with certainty what caused it to drop out of the sky from 37,000 feet. But this sets out what we actually do know at this stage of the investigation:The EgyptAir Airbus A320 was travelling at 37,000ft en route from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to Cairo when it is believed to have crashed into the sea shortly after disappearing from radar. The plane transmitted its last known position about 10 miles (16km) inside Egyptian airspace having recently left the jurisdiction of Greek air traffic control. A search operation was launched and Egyptian aviation officials said wreckage from the plane was found near the island of Karpathos. This was later retracted amid confusion over the nature of the debris found. <br />Greek defence sources said that during a critical two-minute timeframe the plane made a 90 degree swerve left and dropped from 37,000ft to 15,000ft, before swerving 360 degrees right and vanishing at 10,000ft. Egypt’s minister of civil aviation, Sherif Fathy, conceded that terrorism was more likely than technical failure to be the cause of the crash. The French president, François Hollande, said 'No hypothesis should be ruled out". <br /> <br />30 Egyptians, 15 French nationals, two Iraqis and one Briton were among the 66 people onboard missing plane. <br /> <br />Among the passengers were 30 Egyptians, 15 French nationals, two Iraqis, and one person each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.
