is a difference between security and chaurts and plays like sharm el sheik and charles de gaulle an airport. you have a high footing at charles de gaulle airport, after the brussels attack and the paris attacks in november and then in january, more than a year ago. so they are on a very high al t alert. it's one of the heightest footings they can be on in security at airports. if you have been through a european airport, you go through several layers of security where they check you, they check your documents, they screen your belongings, they are supposed to do a thorough screening of your bags. but it is never 100% foolproof. and what every airport in the world struggles with is that threat from possible insider. whether he or she might be working for the airport or the airline, whether they might be working for a food handler, a caterer or might have access to the plane and may be able to sneak something on, that is simple to smuggle on like a soda can. i can hear the viewers saying why are you rushing to judgment that it's terrorism? we're not. and one of the most reliable air raft in t

that plane took off from charles de gaulle airport about 11:09 p.m. local time in a 04 disapped from radar. it took off at 11:04 and headed to the cairo airport when it simply vanished. it happened around 2:45 cairo time, just vanishing from radar screens. according to officials, the plane was just about ten miles into egypt air space when it disappeared from the radar trackers and it was reportedly flying at an altitude of 37,000 feet at the time. that would be a high cruising altitude. according to egyptair, there were 56 passengers on board that flight including three children. also seven crew members and three security personnel on board on behalf of egyptair. none of the passengers are reportedly american citizens. right now, egyptian armed forces are conducting search operations with a number of planes and naval units and greek military sending in two ships to help. we hope it will be a rescue before it turns into the recovery operation. egypt's military is reporting it has received no message or signal whatsoever from the plane after it disappe

>>> this live image of the charles de gaulle airport. the egyptair counter. 55 passengers checked in there last night. they were joined on board with ten others for what would have been a routine flight. it never landed in cairo. >> we are updating that breaking news on that flight this morning. egyptian officials are now saying an egyptair flight again 66 on board crashed that the mediterranean. john nance we spoke to nor his analysis on the investigation. >> i know it's tough at this point with such little information but what can you tell us about what information is coming out about this and how to go about finding out what >> well, basically, we've got quite a bit of tracking up to the point that it so-called dispraerpd when we say disappeared that means the last thing we heard from the airplane electronically from the transponder was at 37,000 feet and cruise speed of about 3500 miles an hour. there are unconfirmed reports that the what we call the skin paint or basically a shadowy return from the airplane itself when the transpond

so security levels have been ramped up and the reason he's suggesting that is that charles de gaulle ld be the weak link here if indeed this was a terror attack. could something have got on the plane here at charles de gaulle that cause add explosion and caused the downing of that aircraft. all options are on the table. and we have no evidence that that is the case. but that's one of the lines of investigation here, and human contact with the plane is the primary line of investigation there. who had contact with that aircraft, ground crew, aircrew, passengers, who could possibly compromise the safety of that aircraft. the paris prosecutor's office who oversees terror investigations hasn't suggested terror. so all lines of investigation being looked at with certainly terror is one of them. isha and john. >> thanks, max. >> thank you, max. thank you, becky. now the for instance foreign minister spoke with france two as you heard max mention about the missing plane. he said this, we're searching for wreckage of the plane. france is contributing to the search along with greece and other c

thank you to the three of you. >>> with this early theory of terror a big focus is security at charles de gaulle also the airports that you visit, as well. we will take you to charles de gaulle and find out what they have done to make it even more secure over the last several months and why that might not be enough. next. why do so many businesses rely on the us postal service? because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority: you i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans,

when you're talking about a plane like this at charles de gaulle, again, we can't overstate the significance of this. i mean, it would be incredible if this actually happened and was placed in at charles de gaulle. but how many people would possibly have access to a plane like this? to an airbus on the tarmac? >> well, actually, hands on the plane, probably a couple dozen. but remember, there's sort of extension hands, if you will, of people who prepare the food carts, who check the bags in, who might have handled the previous flights so literally if you put all of the people that go into putting things on to the plane, even if their hands don't put it on to the plane themselves, hundreds. >> i mean, it is pretty incredible. and bob baer, what do you make of the point that paul was making, that there has been no claim of responsibility. mary thinks it could be significant, because it could mean that this is possibly a dry run. that this is a test and they don't want to reveal themselves pause they have something much, much worse in store. >> it could be a test. they could be testing charles

charles de gaulle is an extremely secure airport. and this plane was leaving from charles de gaulle to egypt, another country that had been involved and has been the victim of terrorist attacks. >> yeah, exactly right. and so that's going to be something that they are going to be looking at and remember, we know that islamist extremist groups have always wanted to target aviation. we know that, for example, from the attacks in brussels where they attacked brussels airport. but, of course, when you think about that attack, for example, it was in the big picture if you like, relatively crude. those men walking in with bombs in their bags so to be able to have an effect on a plane like this, just a note of caution. we don't know whether terrorism has anything to do with this. but to have that kind of effect on a plane like this, flying out of this kind of airport, well, that would be extremely concerning. by the way, some of the questions in previous attacks that have been raised have been about the airport workers, whether it would be p

we have yet to hear from any officials in charles de gaulle. >> the flight took off from charles de gaulletook off from charles de gaulle. >> it took off from charles de gaulle at 23:09, 11:09 local time, paris time. and it's about a 4, 4 1/2 hour flight to cairo. it was about 3:30, 3:20 into the flight when it disappeared on radar. due to land again very early in the morning local time in cairo. again, egypt air say aing it disappeared about 174 miles off the coast of egypt. again, we have been told that weather was good. should not have been a factor. this was a relatively new plane. an airbus a-320 built in 2003. and that is essentially what we know right now. investigators looking at the maintenance records and the safety records of this familiar airplane to see if there were safety concerns there. we haven't heard anything yet. and of course search and rescue is now on scene. not only egyptian but also greek officials who have sent two aircraft. they have a couple helicopters on stand by from one of the southern islands in the med terrate mediterranean. and a larger area, the plane di

charles de galle airport in paris. these are live images from charles de gaulle airport. it is an airport, a humongous airport. about 30 minutes away from the french capital. you can see reporters are already doing their presentations. the egyptian capital where egyptian air officials and others have set up areas to receive family members of the 66 people on board this flight. you have more information on what seems to be some conflicting reports only flight. >> not unusual in the early hours of something like this. certainly not unusual for egypt. we're now hearing from a spokesperson saying they have not received a distressed signal. we had earlier heard from the egyptian airline that there was some kind of an automated signal from the aircraft that the egyptian military received. the egyptian military saying they have received no such signal. this really does highlight the country of egypt. in 2013 you had a military coup. the division between the civilian authority and the military authority in egypt is a very real division. and we're sort of seeing that play out in the early hours of this story. >> it is

but our coverage begins where that ill-fated flight began at charles de gaulle international airport outside paris. senior foreign affairs correspondent greg palkot is there tonight. hello, greg. >> hi, bret. egyptair flight 804 took off from the terminal behind me last night. little did those on board know, their fate would soon be sealed. 11:09 wednesday night paris time, charles de gaulle airport. egyptair flight 804 and airbus a320 takes off. on board, 66 people. among them egyptians, french, canadian, a britain, no americans, but there were children. among the crew, tellingly, three security. the flight from paris across europe towards the destination of cairo, goes smoothly at the outset. 1:24 thursday morning, the plane enters greek air space.

at charles de gaulle. if it wasn't coming from a more insecure location from cairo to charles de gaulle. they know the stringent security system there. that will play in to their thought process. all of these things go in to their thought processes. this affects us and it effects each of us. if this was terror, two things this does, one it shows that they can get on a plane in one of the most secure airports in fe world that's been on high alert for sometime. that's the first thing. the second thing it does, it absolutely buries the egyptian economy again. egypt is a -- was a strong nation before -- as strong as you will get in north africa for sure before the arab spring. it has had problems and instable since that. their economy has taken a significant hit because tourism is down massively with the insecurity. if this is a case of terrorism, not only does it effect europe but all of us because it shows they -- it opening the door for more hard line extremist islamic leadership. that's what they want. they

this plane left charles-de-gaulle a major hub of aviation around 11:00 p.m. local time. 3 hours 40 minutes into the flight it was at 37,000 feet. it was flown by muhammad sakar. this is an experienced pilot over 6,000 hours of flying time over 2,000 in this specific type of plane. his co pilot over 2,000 hours of flying time. the weather was fine when they dropped off the radar. usually this would suggest a catastrophic event, high drop in pressure. no one is suggesting that is what it is egyptair has gone to great lengths to say no one should jump to conclusions. the prime minister saying nothing can be discounted. they are setting up meetings with the national security advisors. the french issued their condolences to those involved. that is the first suggestion everyone on the plane may have died. of those 56 passengers, 30 egyptians, 15 french, one britain, one belgium and a few from other countries. 7 staff on board and 3 security officials which is normal operating procedure for this kind of flight. security is the highest all over europe all over the wo

so, yes, they sweep the planes and they did that at charles de gaulle. the question is, is that sufficient? would that pick up something homemade, hand device or something that perhaps got through that security and that is where, that is really where the problem is right now. >> all right. always a pleasure. thank you, sir. >> joining me now, msnbc terrorism analyst. executive director terror, a simple yett assymetric project. we don't have any claims of responsibility. there was not an official declaration, within 12 hours or so you had isis folks popping up to say we did this. what do you make of that? >> you can't really rely on a claim of a terrorist groups. historically they didn't take claim right away. they would evaluate how much fear and terror they put into the population. this air craft blew up over sinai. they found the wreckage over in a matter of hours. by blowing up over the water, you go into the mh-370 scenario. you have no idea where or when you'll find that and that of course, extends this story out a long way. they may not want to tak

thing if necessary, but there's also the possibility that it was not related to the airport, charles de gaullelane was at four other airport yesterday, and something could have been placed aboard it at some other stop along the way. it only spent an hour on the ground at charles de gaulle. something we learned in the last hour is the french have also joined in the air search that's going on. they have put up a falcon jet, the french navy has put up a falcon jet which has an autonomy of five hours, can go up and is normally used to look for boat loads of illegal immigrants coming into europe but has been pressed into service for some surveillance for the debris. they're involved to that extent, but the french accident investigators, who certainly will be involved here because it was an airbus constructed in france and because it was -- the point of depar tour was the french airport and there are 15 french on board, for those reasons the french accident investigators will almost certainly get involved but they have not gotten the call yet. they're still waiting for the egyptian authorities to sa

charles de gaulle has had serious security issues in the last year.tika, this airport is the highest level of security. this is issue during attack on the bat clan months before this happened. >> absolutely. airport authorities have known that charles de gaulle is a prime terror target for some time, and for a number of months they have been very concerned about what's considered back door vulnerabilities, they have access to secure areas, whether or not they can plan something on board a flight. this is why in december authorities here did an extra screening of thousands of personnel, both at charles de gaulle and the other and removed roughly 70 employees from high security areas, took away their badges because of fears they might be linked to radical islamist groups. they are randomly checking security lockers and the same checks you and i go through getting on a plane, no liquids, laptops being checked, now they go through the checks. even so, they're taking a closer look, scrutinizing who had access to the plane. is there anybody, any weak link i

charles de gaulle is a very secure airport. 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 the egyptian airports which are notoriously lax and back at the end of october there was that russian plane that took off from 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 group in egypt would not be able to reach it with some sort of rocket or missile. so was there some sort of explosion on the plane 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. that could indicate some sort of catastrophic failure but as i said right now it's anyone'

>> reporter: well, charles de gaulle airport is a very secure airport.of the most tracked airports in the entire world. it would be on the same level at jfx or l.a.x. this is not like the egyptian airports which are lax. we saw the plane that took off from sharm he will sheik. that many plane was brought down by an explosion claimed by an isis linked group in the sinai. obviously there are going to be some suspicions this was terrorism. 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 airer? we know that because there was no distress call that the pilot either weren't able, didn't have time or incapacitated and were not able to send out any sort of distress call. that could indicate some sort of catastrophic failure. as i said, right now it's anyone's guess. it this plane has completely disappeared. we do know from its emergency sy

over everything is a huge task, atika, more than 80,000 workers have some kind of clearance at charles de gaulle airport? >> reporter: exactly. 85,000 exactly have in charles de gaulle airport, and they have access to those restricted areas. so it is a tremendous task to screen all of those people. remember, in order to just get that badge, you need to have police screening, you need to have another check as well. and then there are sort of the rand random pe random period cal checks, and in december, actually and over the last few months they have been doing reviews of personnel here, and they have in fact revoked the security badges of some 85 people for fears that they may have had links or may have been security risks linked to radical islamists. >> atika, we'll check back with you throughout the day as the investigation continues there. >>> as search crews retrieve the wreckage, how quickly will authority be be able to fickgur out what happened. let's speak to mary schiavo, bob barry, and and miles o'brien here in new york. mary, i want to start with you, a two-part operation going on now,

if t was some sort of breach here in charles de gaulle, what would that mean for international airport security, what would that mean going forward? >> the impact, craig, would be huge, you know, again, if you're just sort of trying to say, well, what's the best guess here? the reason that it was put aboard somewhere else is somewhat incredible, but you can construct a case about why they would target egyptair, if you can penetrate security at de gaulle, there are some higher priority targets, so that's why at this early stage, your mind kind of goes that it might have been brought aboard somewhere else. but if they penetrated the security there at paris, you heard people talking about it, better screening of airport workers and things. but for all this talk about airport security, when you think about plots that have succeeded and failed, over the past decade and a half beginning with 9/11, almost always, it kind of has to do with intelligence, than it does with airport security, 9/11, all we do in response to 9/11 at the airports, that was primarily an intelligence failure. those box

i'm craig melvin live in paris, france, at charles de gaulle airport. a potential breakthrough into what happened to egyptair flight 804. a few hours ago, the egyptian military reported for the first time that it has found seats, suitcases and some other debris from that plane floating in the mediterranean sea. the greek defense minister says egyptian authorities told them that they also found part of a human body. the flight disappeared just over 36 hours ago. 66 people were on board. the debris was discovered about 180 miles north of alexandria, very close to where the plane dropped off the radar near the end of its trip from here in paris to cairo. officials are hoping that investigating the pieces of the plane can shed perhaps some light on what happened. right now still no indication of what brought down that plane although the civil aviation minister said the possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical error. others are refusing to speculate. france's foreign minister said there's no indication of a c

passengers and we've seen it in other airliners, the jordanian airline, saudi airline. >> security at charles de gaulleport, i'm just trying to think, you know, i remember you coming on early yeah, sharm el sheikh that doesn't surprise me. charles de gaulle airport, if somebody snuck it on then. >> it's possible. >> it's possible. my theory is very early on. pardon me if i have to say this about cairo's airport. if that bomb that was smuggled on it came on during the maintenance. it went to eritrea, went to tunisia. it was hidden somewhere. >> that's your working theory. it married up to the bomber. >> not just his working theory. i was talking to a leading -- not mine necessarily but i was talking to a leading french terrorism analyst, and that was almost exactly what he was saying. he said, he was suggesting that maybe it went on at eritrea, main tunis. the bomber married up with it in paris. walked on clean. all he has to know is how to set the bomb off. >> deon theati atdetonation has specified time. >>> not surprising there's political reaction to this. donald trump and hillary clinton both are as

and and at charles de gaulle alone, 90,000 have access to planes. >> we now at charles de gaulle, 70workers were fired in december for their ties to islamic extremism. we had this june 2015 report laid but by fox 25's washington bureau from the homeland security inspector general's office. it revealed that 73 private employees at 40 airports across this country for flagged for ties to terror. there are some things that are coming out of this country. could something like we may have seen there, if indeed it was terrorism, could we see a plane brought down here? >> yes we could. the risk is greater coming out of gashls degall but yes. with almost a million workers and knowing that isis, al qaeda, islamist terrorists want to bring down the aircraft, it's tough. we look for criticism of tsa. it's still very tough to get a bomb on a plane as a passenger. >> are we doing enough in we heard from the los angeles airport that they're raising their counter terrorism security measures in light of this. you know, some people are asking the question, why don't we always have the tightest securit

not just in charles de gaulle but also the previous trip from cairo up to charles de gaulle.s journey for the past 24 hours or so and begin examining everybody who had access to this plane because it's entirely possible if this was an explosive, and we underscore that, if, that that explosive might have been smuggled on board by somebody who is not on board now or who didn't get on board. it could have been a caterer, a mechanic, anybody who had access to that plane. that's been the concern all along you guys about the insider threat. we've talked about post metro threat, asked tsa in united states and homeland security secretary what are you doing here in america about the potential insider threat at airports. that is, and if you have many security experts, kind of an open door that needs to be addressed more thoroughly in the united states. >> a lot of information is going to be coming in in the next hour. we know french officials are calling this an official investigation but they are leading on this. we're also hearing from egyptian officials in a news conference that cou

this left from charles de gaulle, french, very big, respected airport. so the idea that they could have got and bomb on at charles de gaulle is far afield, but families, very, very concerned. we'll keep you updated. >> benjamin hall, we'll check more with you later as we get more information. >> joining us now is retired air force pilot and contributor tom mcenneny. thank you for joining us. >> delighted, heather. >> you've been listening to the information as it has continued to come in. and at this hour, discrepancies involving this distress call from this beacon, allegedly, an automated call going out two hours after the flight disappeared, local time, it disappeared around 2:45 a.m., and i think this call went out, the automated distress call around 4:45 a.m. so what does that tell you in terms of, like the timeline? >> well, i think, heather, when we look at this, i do it very simply. the fact is, when an airplane disappears from 370, 37,000 feet, it is a catastrophic accident or terrorism, act of terrorism. i believe this is an act of terrorism, and

, the passenger manifest, the security video footage of passengers going through security at charles de gaulle airport will be scrutinized. we know there were three egyptian security staff on board as part of the flight crew and anyone who came in contact with the aircraft at charles de gaulle and cairo or any others on that day. >> thank you, nic. >> you can expect a huge investigation. the ambiguity of the distress signal is a concern. you can imagine if the pilots did not have time to send the signal. it must have been something abrupt to cut off communication with them and people on the ground. bringing in expertise is a veteran air pilot. we have captain desmond ross. he is the captain of the aviation services. he joins us from istanbul. we know this is an a-320. historically, what do you know about the reliability of the planes? >> the a-320 is one. work horses of the sky. that along with the boeing 737. they have had issues over the years, but these are work horses. there are thousands in the skies at any given time. you can assume they are properly maintained with an airline like egypt

did they get on in charles de gaulle? e scrutiny paid to the security checks that were put in place on them as well. as well as the security checks caught on video at charles de gaulle on the passengers and background checks and anyone who came in contact with the plane at charles de gaulle. everyone that came in physical contact with it. likely the same for when the aircraft originally departed cairo en route to charles de gaulle as well. the same scrutiny. the security checks, of course, we have become familiar with now. just a few weeks ago when an egyptair plane hijacked by a man purported to have a suicide vest. we were able to have video of him going through the security at alexandra airport. it was diverted to cyprus. it turned out to be a hoax. that level of surveillance is available. it will be scrutinized right now. it may be made public later. >> thank you, nic robertson in london. again, 66 people on board. 15 french citizens and one british. families started arriving at the airport to get information on loved

there are dozens of flight that leaves charles de gaulle. so why this one? >> as you point out there were 66 passengers on board, many of whom were part of the personnel, three of them security from egyptair. so based on what we know now, the fact of this and what your gut says because of your years of experience in this arena do you think it's more likely mechanical? >> you know, i will be honest with you. i don't know what the answer or cause is. i would question anybody who says they know what the cause is or they do have a gut instinct. because it definitely was not a missile. there is no terrorist group that has the capability of shooting down a plane at 30,000 feet. isis can't even shoot it over land, or in the middle of the sea, they can't do that. there is no group that can do that. so unless the russian military shot down this plane it was not a missile. >> so i think you're directly -- we had kevin russo on just a short time ago, he brought up the theory of that. >> highly unlikely. >> so you're saying it is not a theory. >> i would classify it as

the plane took off from charles de gaulle. have things changed their? what's happening? they were pretty tight beforehand because of the aftermath of the november tax, and also what happened -- november attacks, and also what happened in brussels a few weeks ago. the airport security here, compared to other places in paris, was always pretty tight. looking at the rest of paris, people need to get on with their daily lives, and you need manpower to uphold a certain level of security, but here in charles de gaulle, you can't say it is much reduced. of course, the communities are looking, was there a security breach that led to this catastrophe here in paris? anchor: our correspondent max hoffman et al. to go airport with the story for us. thank you very much. the nigerian schoolgirl rescued after being held captive by boko haram litton's for two -- militants for two years has met the country's president. she was one of 219 schoolgirls abducted from a school in chibok , and it is hoped she can shed light on the fate of the other girls still held captive. >> amina ali, showi

charles de gaulle has some of the best security in the world. you couple that with other vulnerabilities as other airports don't have good security like charles de gaulle. we are talking about airports in the middle east who don't have that robust of security. you become conservative of where might something of al place on this plane if in fact it was an explosive. that remains a big "if," back to you. >> that tom, because the plane before it went from paris and cairo, it had other immediate stops as well. that more dangerous region of north africa. lets talk about other possibilities. there are two basic possibilities if it is terror. if it is terror, it is either those baggage handlers or it is a vulnerability that the passenger got something through the system. american officials are most concerned about that possibility because our technology is the same technology as charles de gaulle, the french and us share the same technology. that would indicate this terrorist group came up with a form of explosives. >> this is not a new phenomenon. we h

interests of the egyptians to be upfront about terrorism right now because they can point to charles de gaulleirport. >> so if i'm listening at home and i hear that the french authorities recently scrubbed all the ground staff at the charles de gaulle airport, the main airport in paris there, that would strike me that they had concern about security at that airport. does that make sense? >> it does. it was more of the fact that the information that came out of the brussels terrorist attack cleerlly showed that there were relationships within individuals in brussels and paris. and that was a precautionary note and i would argue that they are doing their due diligence. they are scrubbing to make sure they hadn't missed something in the background or there hadn't been recent radicalization and so one provided access point to a terrorist for getting a bomb on an aircraft. >> tom, as you look at the kinds of groups that would have the capability to do something like this, if it's determined to get a bomb on a plane, it's over water and whether there was a timing device on board. we're talking about

. >>> welcome back to msnbc live from paris charles de gaulle airport.ws and there may have had an explosion on board of the aircraft. >> yes, this is from a couple of u.s. officials familiar with all the data that's gathered by and a number of different sensors looking at different parts of the world, these would be satellites and so forth. an initial look at this data strongly suggests that there was an explosion and in that area at about time that this plane went missing. now, that is as far as they can go with this. it is no at confirmation that was an explosion. it is a strong suggestion that there was one. separately, officials say that of course does not tell you the cause of the crash. it does not tell you what caused the explosion, was it some kind of on board mechanical problem or explosive. of course, cannot have conclusions based on this data. it strongly suggests that there was some kind of explosions that may have brought the plane down but it did not tell what cause it and if in fact there was one here. >> reporter: we are talking about so

>> sharm el sheikh. >> if that's the case, then charles de gaulle is infiltrated by terrorists. people working in the airport as flight crew or i think the pilot is unlikely given the cheerful mood as they say. this is a dreedful state of affairs and i feel to say i reported a few weeks ago the new head of isis' foreign intelligence, there are four branches they use like security service modeled on arab regimes. the new head is a french national. he was born in paris. he's of north african descent. this comes from a guy who def t defected from isis via informants in the organization. isis is leaning heavy on the europization of their foreign operations, not just looking to attack the west but make native sons of west, people in belgium and france, great britain, and germany, senior ranking officials to perpetrate and plan the kinds of attacks and not implausible to me, brooke, this could well have been somebody born in france and working for the airline or the airport and then some way managed to do this assumes it was an act of terror. >> we have a correspondent at charles de g

it left from here, charles de gaulle international airport just after 11:00 wednesday night, 66 soulse lion's share were from egypt, 15 from france, no americans were on board. we'll continue our special coverage in just a bit, this is msnbc. >>> the thing that we're covering tonight obviously is the major story, not only in the united states, but around the globe, about this crash of this egypt air flight. in the last year. there have been two instances where islamist terror groups have claimed credit for exploding a bomb on board a passenger plane. this one wasa-320 plane. this plane was bombed on february 2 of this year, there were 81 people on board. .

after the paris attacks, security was stepped up at charles de gaulle airport.if this plane crash turns out to be terrorism, it shows that the extra precautions were insufficient. the ranking member of the house intelligence committee will explain that, next. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all

so i mean, he was sort of suggesting that it's a safer time at charles de gaulle than ever before becausey've really kind of upped the ante. so where are we with how security is with charles de gaulle given both of these conflicting things? >> giving the conflicting reports we certainly know they beefed up security because there was perceived to be if not a breach of security, at least an element, an unsavory element, i'll put it no higher than that. the reality of course, and let me say the unthinkable that others may not say is that if there is a security breach at somewhere like charles de gaulle, if it's -- if, allison, it transpires that this has been a security breach at charles de gaulle, then we're in a very different game because you're talking about one of the top 20 airports in the world, supposedly one of the most secure headquarters of one of the leading groups air france. so i think before we leap in that direction we take cognizance of it but certainly an incident -- this plane, by the way, in the previous days it had been to cairo and it was -- it was the fifth flight of t

ground staff that work near the plane at charles de gaulle airport.s includes caterers, baggage handlers and gate agents. these are the people who came in direct contact with the plane. some of the 86,000 employees, 86,000 -- who have restricted access to secure areas at charles de gaulle. tom foreman is "outfront." a pretty stunning number. let's talk about this flight as we now know on the ground for about an hour and a half, various people would have come in direct contact with the plane. just how many of them could have literally physically touched this plane, been on board? >> well, we know at the time it disappeared there should have been two people in the cockpit. there were five crew members back in the cabin. there were three security people. we marked them here in red. and there should have 56 passengers on board at that time. you're talking about the airport here. let's take this plane and sweep it back in time to charles de gaulle airport and sitting at the gate and talk about the ground crews. people who had access to the immediate area a

he is live at charles de gaulle airport in france. max, there are security concerns with personnel before at that airport, right? >> reporter: there have been. after the terror attacks in november in paris. 70 people had their passes taken away to allow them to go air side. they are not allowed to go air side anymore. the french government is saying today because of that terror attack and the one earlier in the year, the brussels terror attack, each time they have these big european terror attacks, security levels at charles de gaulle are ramped up further. arguably one of the safest airports in the world right now. that is extraordinary that a possible device was slipped on the airplane here. here is what the french foreign minister had to say a couple hours ago. >> translator: i think we must be careful at this stage. twice i spoke to my counterpart and he did not say that to me. he said we have to speak in complete transparency. there is a total cooperation with egypt and france. >> reporter: so they are not ruling outer or. it is

a huge amount of interest at charles de gaulle. this is where the airplane stood on the tarmac and left heading toward cairo and some suspicion it was sabotaged in some way. this is the airport with a high level of security checks after the string of attacks in europe. extraordinary that the device could have gotten on the plane here. and officials are no doubt checking who had access to the aircraft, the ground crew, the air crew, passengers for example. they are ramping up security today. just earlier, they had baggage checks at the entrance to the terminal. that is a high level of security when you ramped up security at the site with patrols and video surveillance. certainly if they find a french victim, they ramp up the security levels here. we will hear more in terms of official announcements. lots of people talking about the potential for device slipped on board the aircraft here. the reason they're saying it happened here is opposed to the other locations where the aircraft was before it came here, tunisia for example, there

cnn senior international correspondent teekah shatika sh at charles de gaulle airport. hat you seeing there, what are you hearing at charles de gaulle right now? >> reporter: well, we're actually in front of the egyptair ticketing desk and the airport, even though it is at its highest alert level is operating as normal. we have seen armed police, armed security going through the airport, making spot checks, but i have to point out this is high-level security that's been going on for some time now, for quite a few months here. the paris prosecutor has launched an investigation into the missing egyptair flight. that is absolutely standard procedure when an air disaster like this happens. what they are doing right now is scrutinizing that passenger and crew list, figuring out the backgrounds, the history of who was on board, but also, of course, any personnel that may have had access to that plane before the flight. now, actually in the last few months the charles de gaulle airport underwent a security review in which about 70 employees were actually removed from their post

>> ashleigh, there's an obvious concern about that radicalization at charles de gaulle airport. clearly a significant number, but there are, at the same time, it must be stressed, very rigorous security protocols in place at charles de gaulle airport in terms of the staff that work there. in terms of their access to secure areas under european security regulations. when they go into these secure areas in european airports, they, just like passengers, need to have their belongings checked, they need to go through security scanning. so that provides an extra safeguard at many airports in europe against this insider threat. it's been a real realization in europe since 9/11. but you have to look at this aircraft and where it was in the 24 hours before it was in paris, and it was in several places in africa and the middle east and these are areas in the developing world which lagged behind in times of airport security in terms of deployment of the latest state-of-the-art technology, scanning machine in terms of training, airport security, in terms of protocols against the insider thr

initiated out of de gaulle, to me, is the detail that is the most flummoxing, evan kohlmann said earlier, sharm el sheikh, that airport, noted concerns about security at that airport. charlesy one of the most secure airports in the entire world. >> reporter: but you've got to look back, too. i mean it came from cairo before, so that's something worth considering. and then it stopped a couple other problematic places prior to that, like in eritrea, tunisia, i think. but cairo would be a subject of intense interest for me, i think, since it was coming directly from there when making the turnaround at de gaulle. when they look at planes on the turnaround, sometimes the turnarounds are pretty quick. explosive device could have been placed aboard in cairo and not discovered on the quick turnaround at de gaulle with some kind of timer aboard, it would have to be. >> mr. cox, have we learned anything since 370 about other possible causes of explosion midair in an airplane that perhaps we had not anticipated before or hadn't seen? do we have new information about what the range of possibilities can be? >> no, malaysia 370 remains a mystery. we don't know what happened to that airp

in the meantime we have to live pictures now from charles de gaulle international airport where flight 804 departed and where relatives of the passengers are now gathering.senior correspondent greg palkot is live outside charles de gaulle international airport in paris with the latest. i can only imagine what the scene is there, greg. reporter: its agreement seen it for sure. charles de gaulle airport paris, terminal one right behind me.this is where egyptair flight 804 left last night, that doomed flight and interesting, it's where another egyptair flight is leaving just about now. some regular passengers on board but also we have been told family members of the victims of that doomed flight . remember, 66 people on board, 56 of them were passengers, egyptian, french, canadian man, europeans and others. they have been here waiting for any kind of answers. they got a very grim response from trench president swap along the. he said sadly the plane has crashed but he also said that france will be firm and searching for answers. take a listen to what he said. when we have the truth, we ne

it had several stops before charles de gaulle. when it got there it was apparently sweet -- sweat -- sw ept. some good of devise could have been put on the plane. if it was similar to what we believe occurred, that it was a was can sized devise, that not tracked by explosive technology. then we really have a problem. airport security is human intelligence. most of the security is human intelligence before anybody gets close to the airfield. we need to move more quickly on its. >> there is news tonight that a second girl has been rescued after being held by bo boko haram militants. both girls were kidnapped two years ago when they raided their school. 217 girls are still missing. a new report says one person will die every three seconds from superbugs by 2050 unless urgent action is taken. a global response is now needed. >> in the pre-antibiotic era, patients would simply have died. she spent two weeks critically ill in birmingham children's hospital with a drug-resistant bacterial infection. she is now on the mend. >> we were not

pertinently the people that came aboard the aircraft all went through security screening presumably at charles de gaulle airport. this is a procedure that we're all familiar with now. it's hard to imagine how that could be subverted at charles de gaulle airport, but they will be looking at all those passengers to make sure they know who was getting onboard the plane, what their previous histories were, what their connections were, where they were living prior to getting onboard the aircraft, and also looking at the video of the security checks that they would have gone through at the airport to see if there were any abnormalities there, back-checking on all of those pieces of information. you know, we have to look at this in the light of the metrojet crash, the plane that was brought down by a bomb that took off from egyptian soil. and we also have to look at this in the light of paris being the center of isis attacks quite recently and the security and terrorism concerns inside europe. we have to look at it in that light, but we have no evidence at this time that this was a malicious event of any descr

charles de gaulle airport.n that time, could someone have placed a bomb aboard, perhaps sitting in baggage or a food service cart. or could a terrorism managed to board with other passengers. questions have been raised in part because of last year's bloody terrorist attacks in france. in their aftermath, interior ministry officials revealed that 85 security badges needed to access secure areas of the airport were revoked last year because the badge holderers allegedly showed signs of radicalization. what's for, airport security carried out a new sweep of employees again looking for anybody who might pose a threat. but 86,000 people work at the airport and screening for signs of radicalism is a daunting task. none the the, in the wake of the egyptair crash without knowing the cause, officials ordered a thorough investigation of anyone who might have come in contact with the plane and a review of video. >> this is not only a necessity by measures this is nor a judgment nor assumption but it's a failure it's a way