Relatives of missing EgyptAir passengers arrive at Cairo and Paris airports - in pictures

• 

• 

  Relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir flight leave the Egyptair in-flight service building where they were held at Cairo International Airport. Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed. Amr Nabil / AP

• 

  An Egyptian woman, who said her brother is among passengers, grieves as she leaves the Egyptair in-flight service building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport. Officials say the search is now under way for the debris. Amr Nabil / AP

• 

  Relatives of missing EgyptAir flight MS804 passengers are seen at Cairo airport, in Cairo. Among the 56 passengers on board the plane were 30 Egyptian nationals, 15 French, two Iraqis, one Briton, Belgian, Kuwaiti, Saudi, Sudanese, Chadian, Portuguese, Algerian and a Canadian. Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

• 

  Relatives of missing EgyptAir flight MS804 passengers react in front of the airliner’s centre at Cairo Airport. EgyptAir said radars lost the plane’s signal when it had flown just over a kilometre into Egyptian airspace, adding that at that time it was flying at about 11,000 metres. Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

• 

  EgyptAir said a “distress call” had been received from the plane two hours after it disappeared from radar, thought to have been an emergency beacon. The Egyptian military denied that any distress calls were received. Christoph Schmidt / EPA

• 

  A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight 804 is escorted at Charles de Gaulle Airport. 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. Michel Euler / AP

• 

  Airport security staff stand near the EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash. Raphael Satter / AP

• 

  Reporters gather in front of the EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport. An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning. Raphael Satter / AP

An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed in the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday morning, Egyptian aviation officials said. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash.