The flight was just twenty minutes from landing at Cairo International Airport
Wreckage of EgyptAir flight MS804 has been found south of the Greek island of Karpathos, Egyptian aviation officials confirmed.
The Airbus A320 was en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew when it went down overnight.
Egyptian Vice-President Ahmed Adel told CNN the rescue operation was “turning into a search and recovery”.
Officials say the plane is more likely to have been brought down by a terrorist act than a technical fault.
It made two sharp turns and dropped more than 25,000ft (7,620m) before plunging into the Mediterranean Sea, Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told reporters.
Search teams in the area have sighted debris from the plane, including life jackets.
“There have been finds south-east of Crete, inside the Cairo flight information area,” Greek army general staff spokesman Vassilis Beletsiotis told AFP news agency.
The search in seas south of the Greek island of Karpathos involves Greek and Egyptian naval forces, and the British Royal Air Force.
Sixty-six people were on board Flight MS804, most of them from Egypt and France. A Briton was among the passengers.
Of those on the plane, 56 were passengers, seven were crew members and three were security personnel.
Relatives of some of those on board are being flown from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to Cairo.
Flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle at 23:09 local time on Wednesday (21:09 GMT) and was scheduled to arrive in the Egyptian capital soon after 03:15 local time on Thursday.
Controversial Kampala Woman MP Nabila Nagayi Sempala today had no kind words for President Museveni after her candidate Mohammed Nsereko was trounced during the election for the Deputy Speaker of the 10th Parliament.
9th Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her Deputy Jacob Oulanyah, both backed by NRM party Chairman Museveni, were re-elected to retain their seats for the 10th Parliament.
Speaking during the aftermath of the 10th Parliament’s first sitting,Ms Nabila described Mr Museveni’s involvement in the activities of the House as uncalled for and compared the event to school children’s elections.
“This election was like a school children’s election for head prefect where parents should not be involved. President Museveni is not an MP (school child),” Nabila Naggayi told reporters.
President Museveni looks on after as Jacob Oulanyah swears in as Deputy Speaker of the 10th Parliament on Thursday
The President’s presence in Parliament was first questioned by the Budadiri West MP, Nandala Mafabi who raised a point of order, questioning why Mr Museveni had been allocated a slot on the Order Paper,a development he said infringed the rules of procedure.
“I have been in Parliament for four terms. I have never seen this. Why today of all days?” Mafabi questioned.
However, Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana defended the President’s presence, saying Mafabi was out of order because he did not quote any law that bars the President from attending the session.
Acting Chief Justice, Steven Kavuma ruled Mafabi out of order, stating that his role was to oversee the elections.
VOICE OF REASON: Dr Winnie Byanyima, the Oxfam boss and wife to presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye.
Oxfam International ED Winnie Byanyima on Thursday visited her jailed husband Dr. K Kizza Besigye who is on remand at Luzira Prisons over treason charges.
Uganda’s opposition kingpin was on Wednesday arraigned in Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s Court and charged with treason afresh after his previous appearance in a similar court in Moroto District.
Ms. Byanyima after the visit tweeted: “He is in the cell with two others. They cook their own food and eat together. He wears a yellow prisoner uniform but strong physically and in will.
“Kizza Besigye is concerned about lawlessness and persecution by Uganda Police Force and it’s illegal militias. Masked men followed him to Moroto.
“He is also concerned about Uganda’s Judiciary which is acting in collusion with police to persecute him and he was dragged to court without lawyers and outside official hour.
“He calls on Ugandans to remain firm in face of persecution and humiliation by a guilty and frightened illegitimate regime.
“He will prove his innocence if court acts justly but Judiciary UG is colluding with lawless Uganda Police Force to persecute him.
“I was delighted to meet Dr. Stella Nyanzi and her lovely children at Luzira Prisons. Her work is important and should not to be confused with her Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) battles.
Mr Besigye was the main challenger to President Yoweri Museveni in the country’s recent general election, which Mr. Museveni won by a landslide.
Mr Besigye was arrested on Wednesday in downtown Kampala and flown to Moroto, where he has been in custody ever since.
It follows a series of arrests of the opposition leader during the election campaign.
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga celebrated her sole candidature in grandiose fashion … by fully sponsoring 50 fellow MPs to a full night in Guvnor Nightclub.
Ms. Kadaga has on Thursday made it crystal clear what was strongly insinuated that she loves to party after ending the 10th Parliament inauguration by asking President Museveni ‘to help take MPs to Guvnor (Night Club) tomorrow’.
We’re told Mr. Museveni is very pleased after the legislators showered his preferred candidate for deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah.
We don’t know if the old man with a hat will attend but most probably will bankroll the night out considering last week he gave NRM MPs Shs.5million each to buy suits for the swearing-in event.
According to our in-house expert, whether Museveni buys the drinks or not, the speaker is already bent on going, ‘Guvnor tomorrow night,’ she is said to have reminded returning MPs.
However there are absolute signs that on Friday night at the Industrial area based ritzy club’s exquisite VIP lounges and etiquette will be filled with regular patrons Mose Balyeku (Jinja West), Dennis Galabuzi (Busiro North MP-elect) and Peter Ogwang (Usuk) who will be orientating ‘fresher MPs’ such as Badiri Margret (Koboko Women), Rose Kabagyenyi (Kisoro Women) among others who would would kill to feel the city’s night grove.
FAILED EDUCATION SECTOR: FDC Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija.
Forum for Democratic Change’s Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija has been released from police dungeons at Kireka.
Kaija who was arrested same day like the party’s Secretary for Mobilization, Ingrid Turinawe, Zeridah Kakayi, the party’s secretary for youth and the secretary guard at the party head office.
Police recently claimed they weren’t involved in their arrests and as they couldn’t disclose their whereabouts. However, this isn’t the first time that police is playing games of hide and seek with the opposition politicians.
Just recently, police publicist, Fred Enanga denied that the force hadn’t arrested Ms Turinawe only to be contradicted by his boss, the Inspector General of Police at presser when he admitted that they had arrested Turinawe.
Below is the statement from Mr Kaija
FREE AT LAST
I want to thank all that stood with me when the dictator jailed me for nine days at SID Kireeka for defying Justice Kavuma’s order!
In the Kireeka cells I found Sam Ariho well known in the FDC circles at MUK. He is charged with treason. He inserted my name and that of Michael Kabaziguruka in his statement as one of the people he consulted while starting his activities. I asked him why, he told me he had been beaten. I find this strange!! The truth is that I had not seen him for seven years. He called me one day and I invited him to office. I told him that our party was only involved in Non Violence Actions.
I want to thank my Brother Hon. Nathan Nandala-Mafabi, I made a One Man Protest at the SID offices until I was released yesterday. He asked to be jailed with me if they didn’t allow him to go with me .From what we gathered, all FDC cases, the IGP has the final case.
I can’t forget those who didn’t fear to come to Kireeka to visit me. Mwiru Paul, Anna AdekeEbaju, and her sister, Wafula Oguttu, Ibrahim Nganda Ssemujju, Dr. Odwer, Senior Counsel Rwakafuzi. Activists, Kigongo Ayub, Fred W Mutibwa, Ayub, Kalule Sam, Namutebi,Richard Nyombi Byemalo, Musitwa, the NRM Poor Youth,
My family David, Ruth and Edna.
I also want to thank the Social Media Activists for demanding for my release that one day the Kireeka leadership had to come to my cell at mid night to find out if I was keeping my phone. There was panic all over the place for two days. Lastly I thank Ingrid Turinaweand Doreen for the mobilization. What I can authoritatively tell you is that we have a lot of support in the forces.
Kampala Central MP Mohammed Nsereko on Thursday conceded defeat in the tight race for the 10th Parliament Deputy Speakership.
Nsereko said that democracy had won after being beaten by former Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah who polled 300 votes in total against 115 for Nsereko during the first sitting of the August House.
“In democracy there is always a winner and a loser. We have all won today because democracy has won Democracy has won,” said Nsereko who was contesting for Deputy Speaker for the first time and managed to gather 115 votes in total. One vote was announced as invalid.
“The voice of tolerance should be given space to thrive,” he added.
The legislator pledged to work with Mr. Oulanyah whose earlier intent to take speaker Rebecca Kadaga’s job made Nsereko seek Deputy Speaker. He said: “I will work closely with the Speaker’s office because there can only be one Deputy Speaker.”
Before the vote, Nsereko had been tipped to take the day but President Museveni’s intervention saved Oulanyah. Museveni gave Shs5 million to each NRM legislator disguised as facilitation but in real sense, it was meant to woe them vote Oulanyah. Museveni also went on to back track on the Tax amendment bill where he has refused to sign it into law. In the new bill, the legislators had exempted themselves from being taxed on mileage and sitting allowance. however, it is reported that this time Museveni said, if MPs vote Oulanyah, he would sign the bill exempting the MPs.
The Omoro County MP has been full of praise for Mr. Museveni and there is a school of thought which holds that the party chose to reward him what is widely seen as his unrepentant sycophancy. Ms Rebecca Kadaga has been elected unopposed to become speaker.
Bishop Anthony Zziwa of Kiyinda-Mityana Diocese (R) and UTB Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Asiimwe address journalists at Uganda Media Centre on Thursday.
The Ministry of Tourism through the Uganda Tourism Board together with the Uganda Episcopal conference have teamed to give a boost to the faith-based tourism ahead of the Uganda Martyrs celebrations.
Preparing for the 3rd June Martyrs that attracts hundreds of thousands of faithful pilgrims visiting Namugongo, The UTB, Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife & Antiquities and the Diocese of Kiyinda- Mityana, the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church of Uganda have organised a “Walk of Faith” in preparation for the celebration.
In fulfillment of the key strategic objective of the Tourism Act 2008, UTB runs domestic tourism promotions campaigns to popularise attractions and events in Uganda. This UTB is working with the Catholic Church secretariat and other stakeholders to organise the Martyrs Walk. The theme of the walk is “Walking in the Footsteps of the Martyrs.”
Speaking at the press conference earlier today at the Uganda Media Center in Kampala, the UTB Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Asiimwe called upon Ugandans to embrace the pride of faith-based tourism and this is aimed at growing the brand of tourism in Uganda worldwide.
The UTB therefore has decided to team up with the Uganda Episcopal Conference to help attract global audience with a frontline of the 3rd June Martyr’s Day, a day that is internationally acclaimed and welcomes many tourists in the country.
The event walk that is scheduled to take place on Sunday May 22nd, 2016 in preparations for the celebrations of this year’s Uganda Martyrs Day has a different theme from the overall theme of the Martyrs Day. The Martyrs Walk starts at Munyonyo Martyrs Shrine at 8:00am and ends at St MAtia Mulumba in Old Kampala. After the walk, Bishop Anthony Zziwa of Kiyinda-Mityana Diocese will lead prayers at 3;00pm at the St Matia Mulumba Church.
The Spiritual Journey is to enable our Christianity today to “experience the martyrs’ pain and last moments on earth in a commemorative walk from Munyonyo to St. Matia Mulumba Church in Old Kampala”.
This walk is part of the grand plan to organise such a pilgrimage every year to officially launch the pilgrimage to Namugongo by people from all over the world. This year’s walk will be the first ever such an official event to be included on the Uganda Martyrs day celebration calendar intended to promote Uganda Martyrs trail further.
Just like President Yoweri Museveni had wanted, the status quo of the Ninth Parliament has been maintained.
Jacob Oulanya, MP for Omoro (NRM) and former occupant of the deputy speaker post has surprisingly beaten Kampala Central MP Mohammad Nsereko.
Mr. Nsereko an Independent who was recently kicked out of the ruling party caucus meeting at State House Entebbe polled 115 votes while his opponent got 300 with one vote becoming invalid.
It was a heated contest which even led President Museveni who had gone to attend the vote in the Parliament Conference hall get asked to move out briefly.
The President last week prevailed over seven NRM MPs who accordingly withdrew from the Deputy Speaker’s race.
Ms. Rebecca Kadaga was elected speaker unopposed on Thursday morning during the first sitting of the August House.
In her acceptance speech, Ms Kadaga promises to be speaker of all MPs.
An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea with 66 people on board was very likely brought down by a terror attack, experts said today.
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. Officials said there was no distress call.
There were 56 passengers on board including one Briton, 30 Egyptians, 15 French, one Belgian, one Iraqi, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi Arabian, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and one Canadian. There were 10 crew on flight MS804 including three security guards.
Jean-Paul Troadec, the former chief of the BEA national investigation unit, said the lack of a live emergency alert suggested a ‘brutal event’.
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.’
His comments came after a merchant ship captain reported seeing a ‘flame in the sky’ over the Mediterranean.
Lyzerakos told private Antenna television that controllers tried to make contact with the pilot 10 miles before the flight exited the Greek Flight Information Range (FIR), but the pilot did not respond.
Lyzerakos said controllers continued trying to contact the pilot until 0.39am GMT when the plane disappeared from the radar, around 10 miles into Egyptian airspace.
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.
A French security source told the Telegraph: ‘We cannot rule out the possibility of a terrorist attack.’
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.
A radar map shows the plane’s path travelling from Paris and then stopping in the Mediterranean Sea before reaching Cairo, where it lost contact with air traffic control
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.
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.
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.
President Yoweri Museveni has arrived at Parliament on Thursday to supervise the election of Deputy Speaker during the opening of the 10th Parliament.
Kampala Central legislator Muhammad Nsereko is battling Omoro County counterpart, Jacob Oulanyah who has been the Deputy Speaker for 9th Parliament
According to the Clerk to Parliament, Jane Kibirige, during the inaugural session, a Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be unveiled before the August House.
MPs have given Speaker Rebecca Kadaga her seat back through a secret ballot even backed by the fact that her Deputy Jacob Oulanyah stepped aside for her after an agreement with ruling NRM party top leadership.
However Kampala Central MP Mohammed Nsereko says he is determined to replace Oulanyah as Deputy Speaker.
This has reportedly angered President Museveni who had earlier persuaded both the NRM Central Executive Committee and party MPs to retain Oulanyah as Deputy to Speaker .
The installation of the Speakerwas presided over by the Chief Justice Bert Katureebe after which moment the elected Speaker will then preside over the election of the Deputy Speaker
According to reports, Oulanyah is afraid that Nsereko could beat him in a secret ballot. He believes some ruling NRM MPs are out for revenge.
President Museveni will administer the oaths to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker according to Article 82(10) of the Constitution.
The number of legislators has increased from 386 to 458 following the creation of new districts, municipalities and constituencies by government. The previous legislators had request for a budget of more than Shs2 billion for rent.
