Airbus said the A320 aircraft in Thursday's disaster was delivered to EgyptAir in 2003 and had logged 48,000 flight hours. The pilot had more than 6,000 hours of flight experience, EgyptAir said. The co-pilot had nearly 3,000 hours.

The plane had been in service for more than 17 of the previous 24 hours, traveling from Asmara, Eritrea, to Cairo, then a round trip to Tunis, before heading to Paris.

The last deadly crash involving one of the planes was in March 2015, when a Germanwings pilot deliberately slammed it into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard.