The Nationalities Of The EgyptAir Passengers

More than four hours after EgyptAir flight MS804 went missing, the airline released vital information about the people traveling on the plane from Paris to Cairo. The nationalities of the EgyptAir passengers are not what you'd expect, mostly because they include a large number of non-Egyptian passengers. Update: On Thursday morning, Egyptian aviation officials confirmed with the Associated Press that the EgyptAir plane has crashed. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with AP, said the "possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed," since flight MS804 never arrived at any of the airports. The officials told AP they will now be searching for debris from the plane.

Although the plane was traveling between France and Egypt, the official list of the passengers' nationalities, which was released by EgyptAir via Twitter, gave a human element to this troubling story. From Saudi to British passengers, the multicultural backgrounds of all 56 passengers show the far-reaching effect of this missing aircraft.

Among the 56 passengers on board, 30 of them are Egyptian and 15 of them are French. However, the remaining passengers were not from these places and many were from countries you might not expect: EgyptAir reported there were was at least one passenger from Canada, Portugal, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, and Sudan, just to name a few. Among those on board flight MS804 were at least one child and two infants, according to EgyptAir.

Search and rescue efforts have been enacted by Egyptian officials, focusing on the Mediterranean. Greece has joined Egypt in its search mission, according to The Guardian, to hopefully find evidence of what went wrong with flight MS804.

In addition to the 30 Egyptian passengers and 15 French passengers, EgyptAir confirmed that there are two Iraqi passengers, as well as at least one passenger from each of these countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Algeria, Portugal, Chad, and Sudan.

These nationalities account for the only the 56 passengers. However, there were a confirmed 10 crew members on flight MS804 as well, and their nationalities are not yet known.

EgyptAir announced on Twitter that it set up a crisis center and "hosted the passengers' families near to Cairo Airport," where they provided doctors and translators, as well as "all the necessary services."

Another tweet hasrevealed that EgyptAir ramped up its search and rescue mission: "Special teams from the Egyptian Armed Forces were are at site located for inspection and rescue."