Terrorism?: EgyptAir flight 804 lost at sea

'We do not deny ... the possibility of technical fault.'

Sixty-six people remain missing after EgyptAir flight 804 disappeared from radar above the Mediterranean Sea Wednesday night.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The airline reported the flight was on its way from Paris to Cairo when ground control lost contact with flight 804 at 3:29 a.m (7:29 p.m. CT).

According to CNN, Greek controllers contacted the pilot, who reported the plane near the Greek island of Kea at 37,000 feet at 519 mph. Minutes later, the controllers were unable to contact the pilots.

Greek defense minister Panos Kammenos told reporters the plane entered Egyptian airspace then swerved 90 degrees left and dipped 360 degrees right before falling 15,000 feet, pausing, then plunging 10,000 feet and finally disappearing entirely from radar.

For two hours, Greek controllers were unable to detect further information from EgyptAir flight 804 until a distress signal was detected near the area it dropped from radar. Egyptian armed forces claimed they never received a distress call, meaning it could have originated from another vessel.

Fifty-six passengers and ten cabin crew members and security officers were on board as the plane fell into the Mediterranean Sea.

Though there was no special or dangerous cargo reportedly on the flight - and the plane had just undergone maintenance prior to takeoff - Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi weighed in during a Cairo news conference.

"We do not deny there is a possibility of terrorism or deny the possibility of technical fault," Fathi stated. "I will continue to use the term missing plane until we find any debris."

Later, during the same news conference, he explained there were "no known security issues," but did say: "I don't want to go to speculation. I don't want to go to assumptions like others. But if you analyze this situation properly, the possibility of having a different action aboard, of having a terror attack, is higher than having a technical problem."

The Greek and Egyptian governments have each sent out search parties in the air and on water.

CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri explained: "The water temperatures in the eastern Mediterranean near Egypt are in the low 20s Celsius (mid to low 70s F). Survival times in such waters range from two to seven hours for the elderly or individuals in poor health, while they range anywhere from two to 40 hours for healthier individuals."

With such warm waters, any survivors still have time to be rescued.

Meanwhile, debris has been discovered in the last known vicinity of the disappeared aircraft but officials have yet to determine whether the debris belongs to flight 804.

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