Stephen Lendman

At 11:09 PM local time Wednesday, Flight MS804 with 66 passengers and crew en route from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport to Cairo went missing over the Mediterranean Sea.

French President Francois Hollande said the plane “went down and is lost.” It’s too early to know if what happened was technical failure or terrorism, the latter most likely.

Radar contact was lost at 37,000 feet. According to Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, the aircraft “made abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar.”

It plunged into the sea 20 minutes before its scheduled landing time. Search and rescue efforts are underway. The pilot reported no problems while in Greek airspace.

Forty-five of the 56 passengers aboard were Egyptian or French nationals. Others were from 10 additional countries.

According to Egypt’s aviation minister, “the possibility of…a terror attack is higher than…a technical” problem. The Airbus plane crashed between Greece and Egypt.

Greek officials reported debris spotted 230 miles south of Crete. State TV ERT said “orange-colored” objects believed to be lifejackets were seen floating.

A merchant ship captain reported a “flame in the sky” about 130 nautical miles south of Karpathos island. Clear weather was reported when the plane disappeared.

Russian Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov said what happened “most likely (was) a terrorist attack…” He called on “all interested parties, including (in) Europe, to take measures to identify persons involved in this terrible attack.”

French submarines reportedly may be deployed to locate the plane’s black boxes. A bomb planted on Russia’s Kolavia Metrojet Flight 7K9268 en route from Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt to St. Petersburg last October killed all 224 passengers and crew members - the deadliest accident in modern Russian aviation history.

Understand what’s most important to know. America created the scourge of international terrorism, including ISIS and likeminded groups.

They can’t exist without nation-state support. Lay blame where it belongs when terrorist attacks occur - America and its rogue partners responsible for these deadly incidents.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.