EGYPT AIR SAYS PLANE CARRYING 66 HAS DISAPPEARED FROM RADAR

French president Francois Hollande spoke with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on the phone and agreed to "closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances" in which the EgyptAir flight disappeared, according to a statement issued in Paris.

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 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.

An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said.

The incident renewed security concerns at Egyptian airports after a Russian passenger plane crashed in Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board.

The plane most likely crashed into the sea, said Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian civil aviation authority, according to a report by the Abu Dhabi-based SkyNews Arabia.

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.

Greece joined the search and rescue operation for the EgyptAir flight with two aircraft: one C-130 and one early warning aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said.