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US helps EgyptAir search with Italy-based plane

Posted at 11:57 AM, May 20, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-20 11:57:26-04

CAIRO (AP) — The U.S. is supporting the effort to find the missing EgyptAir Flight 804, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, with U.S. Navy P-3 Orion aircraft based at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, Italy.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman at the Pentagon, said Friday that it’s a three-hour flight to the search site and the U.S. military is rotating airplanes in. One sortie was flown on Thursday and so far, two have been flown Friday. Davis says “thus far, none of our aircraft have reported sighting any debris.”

The Egyptian army says some wreckage has been found 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of the port city of Alexandria.

Davis would not comment on whether the U.S. military has been able to provide satellite imagery regarding the missing plane to Egyptian officials.