>> who are these gangsters? >> reporters. welcome to the "friends 24" newsroom. the top story is of f course an age of air flight from paris to cairo. it crashed in the mediterranean sea. 66 people were on board. the cause remains unknown at this stage. ♪

the search for missing passenger plane is underway in the mediterranean sea. egyptian and greek teams are combing waters for debris from flight data four. it is believed to caution the early hours of this thursday morning. took off from paris wednesday night and was bound for cairo. there were 66 people on board. included 30r list egyptians, as well as 15 french , among 10 different nationalities in total. we heard from the french president, who said that at this stage, no cause can be ruled out. information that we, the prime minister, governing members and authorities were able to gather, confirmed the plane has crashed.

with regards to the families concerned and [indiscernible] egyptian with the authorities, we are making sure that all families can be supported and informed at this painful time. president is addressing the situation there a short while ago. he is reiterating that at this stage, they cannot confirm or deny as to the cause of what brought down the plane. there has been confirmation that the plane fell from the sky, cruising at some 7000 feet. we have teams that are common the waters in the eastern mediterranean, l looking foror possible debris. catherine clifford reports on what we know at this stage.

catherine: a claim like this one, airbus disappeared from radar at 37,000 feet at a around 2:45 a.m. local time on rot from paris and it was headed to cairo. it went missing after it entered egyptian airspace. the last communication was minutes before the plane disappeared. greeking to egyptian and aviation officials, it then crashed. they say terrorism is not being rolled out. >> we cannot dismiss or confirm anything right now. communication stopped in a particular area and the search is underway. there is a statement from the armed forces, saying that they received a distress call. military units and naval forces will be in the search area. catherine: egypt and friends have exchange condolences and harris says it will help with the search. there was an emergency meeting.

>> the president of france spoke this morning. are more than willing to help egyptian search and rescue efforts with our planes and boats. but for now, the priority is to help and informed the families, and we are here for them. catherine: a crisis center has been set up for families. egypt air still does not have information to give out. >> [indiscernible] board, 10 on crewmembers and 56 passengers, 30 egyptians and 15 french nationals. the pilot had logged 6000 flight hours and experts say the malfunction is slim. >> catherine clifford reporting

on what we know at this stage. france has offered to send military planes and boats to help in the search. egyptian and grace officials are still looking for the flight. at the airport in paris, a crisis center has been set up for the relatives of those on board the aircraft. will cross mounted to the airport, where "france 24" mark thompson joins us. what do you have for us there? mark: families have been arriving just outside. we have not been able to speak to them. the french foreign ministeter ss that it is really a case of solidarity first. with the families and has

spoken with the families. he understands that they have been given the option of traveling to cairo if they wish and they have been offered counseling and any medical advice that they may need. we have also heard from the president of france, who basically have the same line, it is really the families of the victims on board this crash. we have heard from holande that the plane has -- hollande that the plane has crashed and we are treating people on board as victims and the families of those on board come first. >> you are at the airport and we are waiting for exact word on what caused the crash to take place early this thursday morning. one scenario is either technical failure or possible fault in terms of the pilot. of course, another scenario that experts are looking at is that of terrorism. indeed, if that does appear to be the case, which of course the

country is under a state of emergency. yes, we have seen a lot of security forces around the airport, but not more so than we you recently because, as say, france is under a state of emergency. the government has been very clear that we should not be speculating as to the cause of this disaster just yet because the information is very, very slim. what we do know is that the pilot was very experienced. we know that the plane has a very good safety record, the a320. it's not have long on the tarmac, about one hour or so for authorities to check on board. it is not that that is not unusual. plane was onthe the fifth trip that they had taken, so there were no problems

with the plane before that. moment, it is really a case of solidarity. as soon as the authorities get the lockbox, get we may have more details as to what happened. >> i can only imagine that currently, in terms of measures aimed taken place there at the airport, there must be going through all videos surveillance and camera footage for anyone who may have come into contact with the aircraft. yes, very much so. the security forces are taking all necessary measures. when you speak to the people at the airport, they seem to be pretty happy to get on board planes today. they are aware of the situation and circumstances around it, but passengers waiting for the planes do not really seem to be that affected.

we have seen planes take off on a regular basis. security forces are doing everything they can. france has been on full alert now and thisriod is not news to them. i can only reaffirm what the government is saying and that is that we should wait until we have other information before we speculate on any potential cause of the accident. >> thank you for that. mark thompson reporting from the airport. the french foreign ministry has given an emergency phone number in case anyone may need to get in touch with any loved ones or those possibly involved in today's incident. 331-4317-5595. or more, i am joined with delon at the susan. you have been here since the story broke several hours ago. just in terms of following it, and as we have heard from mark,

ny storyerms of a of this nature, there are so many questions instead of answers. you have authorities systematically trying to locate the blalacknd to get boxes and flight data recorders. also, going through who was on the plane, what we know about the passengers and crew, and where do things stand in terms of that? we are getting more and more confirmation not from the french presidency, as well as egyptian authorities, that the flight has crashed because it has been so many hours that it dropped off the radar, so it has run out of fuel. what we do know is that there were 66 people in total. passengers and 10 crewmembers. there were two babies and one child on board. among the crewmembers, we had two pilots, five cabin crew and three security officials.

the captain of the plane had 6000 flying hours under his. to be considered a veteran, you would need under 10,000 hours, so he may not have been a veteran that he was not a novice and had a lot of experience. let me run you through the nationalities on board the flight. we have 30 egyptians, 15 french citizens, to iraqis and one brick among eight -- and one brit, among other nationalities. -- among eight other nationalities. the last time greek authorities madein contact was when it seven's words, so that is the latest information. what that indicates, we do not know. >> thank you for that. this is the second incident this year involving in egypt air flights. back in march, one of their planes was hijacked and diverted

to cyprus. luckily, that ended peacefully, with no debts. catherine takes a look back at other incidents involving egyptian aviation. catherine: it was supposed to be a routine flight from alexandria to cairo, until itit was hijackd by a passenger on board, who claimed to be wearing a suicide belt and divergent to cyprus. after a six-hour standoff, the airport on march 29, the hijackers surrendered in all the hostages were released. afterwrward, the authoririties d the man, an egyptian national, acted because he wanted to see his ex-wife and children, who lived in cyprus. his suicide belt turned out to be a fake and officials say the man appeared to be mentally unstable. the hijacking followed on the heels of last october's deadly crash of the russian passenger .lane in the sinai peninsula it is widely believed the metrojet flying from the red sea resort had been downed by a

terrorist attack. the islamic state group claimed responsibility, saying it had planted a bobomb on board, killg all 224 people on the plane. focusedincidents have the spotlight on egypt's airport security, with questions being any potential explosives that could haveve ben smsmuggled onboard board, and if there were any security lapses, but egypt's worst disaster is the crash of flight 990 in 1919. it was a regularly scheduled flight from los angeles to cairo, with a stopover in new york. half an hour into the flight, the plane plunged into the atlantic ocean. it was 100 kilometers off the coast of nantucket, killing all 217 people on board. an investigation concluded the relief pilot was most likely responsible for deliberately crashing the jet. was catherine reporting.

once again, we have military planes and naval vessels ombing the waters here the greek island of crete. they are looking for a flight 804, which went down early this thursday with 66 people on board. for more asking surveillance feedback. quite a lot of activity in this area. according to the greek defense ministry, a clearer picture is coming together in terms of what greek authorities have concerning the aircraft and what they are telling us, we just heard it mentioned a bit earlier, is that the aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet and then making sudden swerves. it does appear that greek air-traffic controllers were in contact with the pilot and reported no problems at cruising altitude, and then we had controllers, as they continue to try to make contact with the pilot some 60 kilometers before

the aircraft exited greek airspace, they were then unable to reach the pilot. the pilot did not respond, and then they continued to try to make contact until 2:29 a.m. in church in time, and that is when the plane did indeed disappear -- egyptian time, and that is in the plane did indeed disappear. it was southeast of the island of crete. as we heard, we do understand amounte pilot had a good of flight time under their belt. earlier, we spoke with an ejection aviation specialist and some of your personally knew both the captain and the copilot on the flight 804 as he helped to train them, and we asked him for his take on today's incident. >> i guarantee their training levels of the pilots, not only because i was the trainer, no,

but actually, i knew the pilots and i worked with them. for the technical concerning or concerning the technical part of the preflight checks, in egypt -- egypt airere is is approved in europe and all of these approvals, so we guarantee the level of checks that happened on the aircraft, but we are still not sure about what is the reason. maybe a technical deficiency maybe simply a failure on the aircraft, but we are not sure. sometimes, most of the reports on someent reports are

where because of the strikes, so at a high it hittingou have the aircraft and destroying the structure, so this could be a clue but we are not sure yet. we need to get the black boxes. that was earlier when we spoke with the former pilot and training specialist, who knew the two pilots on board flight 804. there will be many questions concerning the pilots, aircraft, the flight safety record, and if there were any possible terrorism links. at this stage, there's no clear indication as to what brought down flight 804 this thursday with 66 people on board. it took off from paris and was bound for cairo. we will bring you more of the developing story as it comes into the newsroom.

in other world news, and venezuela, clouds of tear gas in caracas, or the thousands of antigovernment protesters. the opposition is seeking a referendum to oust the president of ahis ordering wide-ranging state of emergency. in response to the unrest, the president said he would use force to ensure peace as protests continued. riot police out in force in the capital and thousands of antigovernment protesters try to reach the headquarters of the national electoral council. .hey were met with tear gas the opposition is seeking a recall referendum that could save -- i could see the president removed from office and they have called to the supporters to take to the streets. >> we are marching to the headquarters to demand the prosecution that started. >> we want a change.

the democratic and fiscal tools for the government. >> despite the rising discontent, the president has dug in his heels, declaring the 60 day state of emergency. now, he has vowed to expand the measures, which could include defending laws and rights if protests continue. >> if this were to take place in hesitate, i will not if necessary, to make such a the securityht for of this country. i will not h hesitate. rerest assured. >> the socialist leader believes u.s. wasry of the conspiring to remove him from his post. venezuela is an the grip of the recession that has

resulted in food shortages and energy crisis, causing venezuelans to wait for hours to buy what little basic food that is available. of the, the first teenage girls kidnapped by boko haram extremists over two years ago from nigeria has been found. the 19-year-old was discovered wandering in the forest with a four-month-old baby. she will speak with the president later today, amid hopes she can shed light on the state of the other missing girls. emerald maxwell has more. emerald: rescued after two years of captivity, the growth identified and was -- the girl was identified and carrying a four-month-old baby. they went out for their normal patrol. unfortunately, [indiscernible]

dictate ofey also boko haram insurgents, who claimed to be the girl's husband. it isn't the remote northeast of the country. groups havave helped government forces retake territory from the insurgents. the girl was one of the girls adopted from us: april 2014. frorom the school in 2014 of april. >> [indiscernible] our hopes have been rekindled. emerald: the teenager was reunited with herr motother. she has been working with authorities. the r rest of thehe girls are .live and well [indiscernible] said that ahe also

few of the girls may have died. emerald: she will meet nigeria's president on thursday. he has made fighting boko haram a priority. next year in paris, a protest that got out of hand with an attack on two police officers trying to escape their car after an expose of the room is the vehicle. for suspects of an arrested in an attempt to -- four suspects have been arrested and an attempted murder investigation has been opened. the country has been gripped by a wave of strikes against the government in labor law reforms. we have more. >> unfurling their anger, this amateur footage captured the violent attack on police officers on wednesday. after kicking in police car

windows, they threw an explosive into the vehicle. it forced the officers [indiscernible] one was taken to the hospital for observation. french authorities have opened an investigation for attempted murder. >> we are determined to track down these hooligans, arrest them and keep them from doing more harm. while theack occurred protest was being held by the .olice, not far away officers came out to voice their own concerns. this brings over 350 that have been injured during protesters -- by protesters during the anti-labour love rallies. they marched against political brutality, chanting everyone hates the police. protest, there was

no talk of lynching. >> polls showed the french police have a high approval rating of over 80%, but tensions have been rising since the nationwide protest against the government began in march. our topinder now of story, and this is the search for missing passenger plane underway in east of the mediterranean sea. teamse egyptian and greek combing waters, looking for egyptair flight 804. it took off from paris wednesday night with 56 passengers on board, as well as 10 crewmembers. as of now, we do know that the plane was lost from radar time,y around 2:45 local greek local time. we are hearing from the great defense minister about a bit more in terms of surveillance. we do know that it appears the

lights made an abrupt turn and it suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from the radar. this was shortly after it entered tyros air-traffic control area -- tyros air-traffic control he -- cairo's air-traffic control area. we heard from the french president, who spoke of the crash, saying whom ever -- that there has been no exact word corey perry as to what has caused this incident. the information that we, the prime minister, government members and egyptian authorities were able to confirm that the plane has crashed and is lost. we have taken measures with regards to the families concerned and that the crisis was immediately activated. together, with the egyptian

authorities, we are making sure that all families can be supported and informed at this painful time. hollande speaking in paris earlier this thursday. they were 15 french passengers on board, 30 egyptians and among .0 other nationalities the plane taking off from paris. this is where the crisis center has been set up. the french foreign minister is on hand, speaking to the plane. they have gathered there at the airport. we will bring you more on this story, but egyptair flight 804 crashed in the east of the mediterranean. teams are currently looking for any debris. stay with us on "france 24." >> french connections.

they are known for their cuisine and saying hello with the case. they only work 45 -- 35 hours a week, when they are not on strike.

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>> it's invisible to most of us, but there is a crime wave going on unprecedented in human history. it's everywhere, in every country, on every contntinent, and it affects virtually everything. the goods we buy, the kind of jobs people do and where they do them, the safety of our homes andd families. it's theft on a colossal scale. >> you could say that it's the crime of the century because you'd always be foolish to try any other kind of crime. if you're organized and you know what you're doing, it is so profitable and it's so easy to get away with. it's just grown maybe a hundredfold in the last 25 years. >> the crime of the century is counterfeiting