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According to latest updates, Egypt's air accident chief has said on Saturday that the missing passenger plane on its way to Russia had safely left Egyptian airspace and made contact with Turkish air traffic control.

"The Russian airline had told us that the Russian plane we lost contact with is safe and that it has contacted Turkish air traffic control and is passing through Turkish skies now," Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the central air traffic accident authority in Egypt, said in a statement to news agencies.

Earlier reports stated that Egyptian air traffic had allegedly control lost contact with a civilian airliner carrying 212 people after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to head to Russia, as reported by news agencies.

The report further added that the passenger plane was mainly carrying Russian tourists and that a search for the missing plane is underway.

This story is being updated