The Governor of Hellenic Civil Aviation, Konstantinos Litzerakos, described the moments before the EgyptAir aircraft disappeared from radar.

“According to standard practice, when an aircraft enters another FIR, air traffic controllers of the previous FIR contact the pilot to inform him that he will communicate with the traffic controllers of the next FIR. That’s what our traffic controllers did, but the pilot of EgyptAir did not respond” Mr. Litzerakos said.

“The traffic controller continued calling the pilot, but with no result. At 3:29 and when the aircraft was flying in Cairo’s FIR the aircraft disappeared from radar, “he said adding: “We notified the Egyptian authorities, they did not know anything”.

Traffic controller spoke to the pilot over the island of Kea, in what was thought to be the last broadcast from the aircraft, but “The pilot did not mention any problems,” Mr. Litzerakos said.