making news in america this morning, breaking overnight, missing over the mediterranean. and egyptair plane traveling from paris disappeared after sending a distress signal. >> the clues just in pointing towards a crash. the mystery now of how did it go down? the all-out search as new details surface about who was on board. good thursday morning, everyone. we'll start with breaking news, the disappearance of an egyptair plane. >> 66 were on board including 56 passenger, ten crew members and

officials are saying this morning that plane has crashed. we're seeing pictures of some relatives of those who were on the flight over at charles de gaulle airport in paris where this flight started. they're being looked after by authorities and by the airline where information centers are being set up to try to provide the family with answers. >> this video is just coming in to our newsroom right now. it is showing family members there and you can see the emotional scene at that airport at charles de gaulle and it's a similar scene in cairo, as well. now, the plane was cruising at 37,000 feet. far above the eastern mediterranean sea when it vanished. abc's lama hasan is joining us with details from london. good morning, what are we learning? >> reporter: yeah, good morning to you. just moments ago speaking on egyptian tv, the prime minister saying it's too early to determine what happened to egyptair flight ms-804 was due to technical failure, human error or whether it is terrorism related. he said we cannot rule out any possibility why the airplane vanished. we are looking at all

directions. that's what he said. the french prime minister also echoing that point saying that nothing can be ruled out at this point. now, here's what we know at this hour, egyptian officials are clarifying egyptair flight 804 missing traveling from paris to cairo, on board were 66 people, that's 56 passengers and 10 crew members. the airline egyptair saying that the plane lost contact with radar at 2:45 a.m. cairo time. it was due to land at 3:05 cairo time so not long until it was due to land. that was the plane's final contact we understand with air control. we understand it was also not a distress call. it disappeared just after entering egyptian airspace and over the mediterranean sea. a major search and rescue operation as you can imagine is under way with teams from both egypt and greece. france saying they are willing to help a crisis center has been set up. cairo airport, egypt's civil

aviation minister is expected to hold a news conference so hopefully you'll be able to get more information on what happened and it's clearly a distressing time for family and friends. >> distressing indeed and still a lot of questions surround all this, the story moving on several fronts, lama, thank you so much for keeping us informed. okay, let's move on and get from the aviation aspect right now. for his take on what we know at this point we're joined by john nance on the phone. john, good morning. >> good morning. >> since we spoke earlier so much information has come out about this plane including that information, the confirmation and sad one that the plane has crashed. >> yes, and i think the egyptian prime minister stated it very correctly when he said you can't rule anything out at this point including the possibility of human error although that is extremely remote. especially in the absence of heavy weather. what we are pretty sure of right now is that the airplane was cruising normally at 37,000 feet and over 500 miles an hour,

about 510, in fact, and it was unable to sustain flight for some reason. either it came apart in midair or something happened that caused the flight path to go nearly not vertical but certainly to go to the water fairly rapidly and we know that there is a deployment of the emergency locator transmitter which these days goes directly to a satellite and that is what we think is the trigger for egyptair having made the declaration that the plane was crashed. >> john, obviously the search is massive right now. egypt, greece and france offering help. how difficult is it to try to find not only the debris but obviously the core of this is the black box and hopefully any survivors. >> i don't know the depth in that particular area of the mediterranean. i don't believe it's too deep. i believe they will be able to locate the wreckage fairly quickly and one of the things that will in their favor is the probability, not just possibility, but probability the emergency locator is floating

and is transmitting as we speak to the receiving satellite. that's -- if that's the case they'll be able to pinpoint it fairly quickly. whether or not there will be much debris is an open question and still a remote although very remote hope that possibly the pilots were fighting something that, made them unable to communicate, in other words, shut down the radios and electricity but still able to ditch the airplane. that aircraft is exactly the same type that was ditched in the hudson river by captain sullenberger a couple of years back so certainly is capable of doing that but the indications are that it came out of the sky and something other than a controllable form, if, in fact, one of the reports which we have not had confirmation of that there was a shadowy fading out of what we call a skim paint after the transponder stopped working if that is true and air traffic control did see some indication of something out there where the airplane was and then it faded away that's

consistent with an airplane breaking up in flight. >> wow and that would be tragic indeed. john, this was an a-320 including by other carriers sump as gentlemenblue. what do we know about it. >> 320 is a sophisticated workhorse like the boeing 737 in terms of the fact there are thousands of them. they are in daily service over the planet. all the time and the philosophy is a little different, a little bit more oriented towards the automatic flight system than boeing but by the same token it's a very robust airplane. powered by two very robust engines and all the things that you would normally expect to have happen in a remote occurrence emergency are well taken care of in the backup systems. >> john, this is all heading into a heavy travel season. how do you expect this to affect air traffic today? >> i don't. not at the moment, at least, now, if certain things come out

and we find definitively this was a terrorism act, then i would assume that it certainly is going to give people pause to fly in that area of the world, not necessarily on egyptair but we already know it's a very highly volatile area and know there are people out there and including da'esh that live to bring down airliners and kill people soy this is nothing new. the question here is if this was a terrorist act how in the world getting out of charles de gaulle did something get on that airplane because that's one of the tighter security areas in the world right now given what's happened in france in the past six months. >> absolutely and that's one of the troubling things for many counterterrorism experts right now if it is the possibility that this was a bomb. our aviation expert john nance, thank you for joining us at this early hour. >> thank you, john. much more on that egyptair investigation coming up. also ahead, donald trump is talking about past rape accusations against bill

clinton. plus, hope for melanoma patients. the new drug being called a breakthrough. and a police officer chasing two suspects driving nearly 100 miles per hour. look at this crash caught on camera and, of course, we will have more on that missing flight 804 for egyptair.

the apartment building where the fire was. when things like this happen, i think you find a new perspective on life. hi.

red cross put us in a hotel so we were able to stay together. we're strong and, if we overcame that or if we can overcome that, we can overcome anything, so. [ sniffle ] welcome back. updating our top story now the disappearance of an egyptair jet over the mediterranean sea. 66 people were on board that flight out of paris last night. it was bound for cairo but never arrived. egyptian officials say the plane has crashed and that its emergency equipment sent out a distress signal before it disappeared from the radar. now, the majority of those on board were from france and

egypt. there were no americans on the flight. we'll have more on that coming up. in other news, donald trump is gaining ground in a possible matchup with hillary clinton. a new national poll by fox news has trump pulling slightly ahead of clinton, 45% to 42%. that's basically a statistical dead heat. now, just last month clinton was leading by 7 points and in this new poll she has strong support from women and hispanics but trump does well with men and white voters. he is raising an explosive allegation. while discussing "the new york times" story about his own relationship with women trump up a decades old rape accusation leveled against a former president. >> in one case it's about exposure and another groping and fondling -- >> and rape. >> and rape. >> big settlements. massive settlements. >> $850,000 to paula jones. >> and lots of other things and impeachment for lying.

>> now, the accuser came forward in 1999 claiming clinton raped her two decades earlier as he was campaigning for arkansas governor. clinton was never charged. overnight hillary clinton's press secretary said trump is doing what he does best, attacking when he feels wounded. when we come back, this morning's breaking news, an egyptair flight from paris to cairo vanished from the radar and crashed. we have the latest on that after the break. d, clean salad, every ingredient is the main ingredient. whether it's big... or small. first to go. or best for last. sweet. or not so sweet. whether it's tossed... or twirled. if it's easy prey. or plays hard to get. every last crunch, sprinkle and drip... should be as clean as it is delicious. panera. food as it should be. sir, can you hear me?

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we're back with live images from the cairo airport. that was the destination point for egyptair flight 804 with 66 people on board. the plane never arrived. instead, a massive search effort taking place right now out to sea in the mediterranean, roughly about 200 miles north of that location. and family members both in cairo and in paris at charles de gaulle airport where the plane took off are waiting for answers. 56 passengers were on that flight, 804, flight 804, rather, they checked in before that flight to cairo but, of course, the flight never arrived. >> an egyptian official confirming that flight crashed early this morning in the mediterranean sea and we spoke with abc's alex marquardt in paris. >> reporter: just gotten word a short moment ago from egyptair, the airline that was flying this plane that there was a distress signal that is now being analyzed by the military search and rescue team and it's just a

signal. very important to differentiate between that and a call. so far there's no indication that any sort of distress call was made. the last aviation authorities to have contact with this plane were the greeks as they left greek airspace to cross the mediterranean and head towards egypt. the greek air traffic controllers said that this plane just vanished. we know from radar that the plane disappeared around ten miles inside egyptian airspace and they were still flying around 37,000 feet. shortly before the plane was due to land about 3 hours and 40 minutes into the flight when it disappeared. we know that there were 66 people on board. ten of them were crew, 56 of them passengers. the majority, 30, were egyptian and 15 of them were french families. now, what we know about the plane is that it's an a-320, which is quite a reliable plane. it was just 13 years old, built in 2003 and we know the pilot

had quite significant experience, around 6,000 hours of flying time. we also know that the weather off the coast of egypt was quite good. quite clear and so right now it's anybody's guess as to what brought this plane down. it simply disappeared from that radar shortly before it started its descent towards cairo airport. charles de gaulle is a very secure airport. it is one of the biggest international most trafficked airports in the entire world. it would be on the same level as, say, jfk or l.a.x. this is not like the egyptian airports which are notoriously lax. we saw back at the end of october there was that russian plane that took off from the egyptian resort town of sharm el sheikh with 224 egyptians on board. that plane was brought down by an explosion that was claimed by an isis linked group in the sinai. so, obviously there are going to be some suspicions that this was terrorism. what we can -- what we can assume from 37,000 feet, the

altitude that this plane was flying at was that a terrorist group in egypt would not be able to reach it with some sort of rocket or missile. so was there some sort of explosive device on the plane or was it a mechanical error or pilot error? we know that because there was no distress call, that the pilots either weren't able or didn't have time or incapacitated and were not able to send out any sort of distress call. so that could indicate some sort of catastrophic failure, but as i said, right now it's anyone's guess. this plane has completely disappeared but we do know that from its emergency system it did put out a distress signal. >> that's abc's alex marquardt in paris where the plane originated and we're starting to hear from government officials about this situation. >> egypt's prime minister says nothing is being ruled out when it comes to the reason why the plane went missing and earlier we spoke to our contributor former marine pilot retired colonel stephen ganyard. >> we have radar data, which is

actually better than radar data, it's the global positioning system which is transmitted from the aircraft so even though the aircraft was lost well out to sea, there will be good data on the altitude, air speed and what the aircraft was doing in its final moments so i think we'll have a pretty good idea whether the airplane did just disappear, which may suggest a bomb or did it go into some sort of steep descent? we obviously don't have any radar transmission, so lots of questions at this point but i think we have some data that will allow us to find the wreckage. as we've seen in mishaps in the past, the mishap in sharm el sheikh, egypt, the russian airplane that went down, when an airplane just disappears at altitude, at cruise altitude it's very unusual and usually something that is catastrophic that will bring it down, perhaps a bomb or a hijacking or somebody takes control of the airplane but an airplane, an airliner at cruise altitude is a very safe place to be and there's no reason in the world that an airplane should just

disappear other than something nefarious or catastrophic happening. we have egypt, a very tense domestic situation, it's just going to raise all sorts of flags and of course the first thought will be terrorism involved. right now there will be a recovery that will take priority and the egyptians because it appears the aircraft has come down in egyptian airspace even though it's over the mediterranean will take the lead on that since it's something like a disaster at sea, you'll have all sorts of nations joining. we're going to find this airplane. we're going to find the wreckage. the mediterranean is not too deep in this part of the eastern med and so we will find the airplane and we will find the black boxes, and so i think we'll have a pretty good chance of determining what went wrong. mechanical will be one thing to look at but, again, the fact that it just disappears is going to suggest something more nefarious, perhaps, perhaps something explosive that would have made the airplane come apart instantaneously and not given the crew a chance to

render a mayday call of any kind. >> all right, that was colonel stephen ganyard. thank you, colonel. and coming up next, we have some more news for you including a must-see police chase in florida. and a new melanoma drug being called a big breakthrough. called a big breakthrough. through. and you're talking to your doctor about your medication... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira helping me go further. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. doctors have been prescribing humira for over 13 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb,

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sarah: there you go. live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news. >> a passenger jet carrying 66 people disappears from radar. this morning, efforts to determine in egyptair crashed as the massive search is >> good morning i am natasha zouves. >> i am regular. now, the weather and traffic and then back to the egyptair. >> live doppler hd show as few clouds in the sky with the cold front push through. but it is dry. the winds are kicking up on mount tamalpais. the freezes come into our neighborhood as we head to the noon hour. waking up cooler mid-to-upper 50s. stay in the 50s at coast and low-to-mid 70s inland. >> to san mateo bridge we have road work on high-rise.

we are seeing slow traffic approaching that part the span. otherwise but are looking good at 17 minutes in the westbound direction from hayward to foster city. elsewhere we have the friend sensors which means everyone is moving at the limit this early thursday morning and other road work in a few. >> back to the developing news, the egyptair carrying 66 people is missing disappears over the mediterranean after take off from paris. our has the late of from the newsroom. >> egypt authorities are saying flight 804 crash but too soon to know why. the pilot did not send distress calls but the signal want out from the emergency equipment on the flight. crews are trying to locate the wreckage. egyptair disappeared 40 minutes before the scheduled landing in cairo. 56 passengers, seven crew

members and three air marshals were on board. three of the passengers were children, 30 were egyptian and 15 were french. no americans were on board. as the families wait for word, officials confirm to abc7 that they have opened an investigation into all personnel involved in the departure flying at 37,000 feet ten miles inside egyptian airspace when it disaperred. air traffic controllers spoke to the pilot three minutes earlier and the pilot did not mention any problems. official say the pilot was very experienced with more than 6,000 hours of flying on the plane. video from the airport shows the distraught mother of a passenger on the flight. at this point family members have been told to stay home and wait for further information.