Egyptair Flight MS804 has disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean, 10 miles inside Egyptian Airspace. The flight from Paris to Cairo was operated by SU-GCC - an A320-232

https://www.planelogger.com/Aircraft/Registration/SU-GCC/408008

Debris from the aircraft have been found 290km (156nm) north of Alexandria, Egypt. The black boxes have not yet been located.

There are now also reports that a number of ACARS messages were transmitted from the aircraft before it disappeared:

• 00:26Z 3044 ANTI ICE R WINDOW
• 00:26Z 561200 R SLIDING WINDOW SENSOR
• 00:26Z 2600 SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE
• 00:27Z 2600 AVIONICS SMOKE
• 00:28Z 561100 R FIXED WINDOW SENSOR
• 00:29Z 2200 AUTO FLT FCU 2 FAULT
• 00:29Z 2700 F/CTL SEC 3 FAULT

These appear to indicate smoke being detected at the front of the aircraft, in the vicinity of the forward lavatory and the avionics bay beneath it.

It's interesting that this incident seems to have developed over the course of 3 minutes, yet no distress call was issued.

Anyone have any thoughts as to what may have caused this incident?

See "MS804: 'We will bring this plane down' - NY Times report" on Walt Whiteman's World blog: http://waltwhitemansworld.blogspot.ca/2016/05/ms804-we-will-bring-this-plane-down-ny.html

I'm not really sure what point the author of that article is trying to make?

He says everyone is jumping to the conclusion that it was IS terrorists, but then goes on to talk about graffiti found on planes at CDG. But surely these are likely to be IS sympathisers?

To me, a bomb seems to be the most likely cause right now. However, normally whoever carries out such an attack is quick to claim responsibility for it. This hasn't happened this time, which is a little odd.