Britain's FTSE falls as travel stocks suffer

* FTSE 100 down 1.4 pct

* Thomas Cook (Xetra: A0MR3W - news) slumps after bookings fall

* Missing EgyptAir plane adds to gloom for travel sector

* Prospect of U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Fed rate hike puts pressure on miners (ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development. See the bottom of the report for more details)

By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - UK shares fell on Thursday after the disappearance of an EgyptAir flight and a drop in summer bookings for Thomas Cook weighed on the travel sector, while mining shares also dipped.

The blue chip FTSE 100 index dropped 1.4 percent to 6,082.29 points by 1101 GMT, underperforming the broader European market.

British travel stocks came under pressure after mid-cap Thomas Cook slumped 16.6 percent to its lowest level since March 2013 after saying that summer bookings were down 5 percent as tourists avoided Turkey.

"The fact that you're going to confess that you're going to have earnings at the bottom end of the range for the coming period is certainly going to keep investors rather cautious overall," Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) , said.

Its blue-chip peer travel company TUI (LSE: 0NLA.L - news) fell 2.7 percent.

News (Other OTC: NWSAL - news) that an EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers from Paris to Cairo disappeared over the Mediterranean also weighed on the sector.

The FTSE 350 Travel & Leisure index fell 1.1 percent.

British miners were also among the top sectoral fallers, down over 4 percent after U.S. Federal Reserve minutes released late on Wednesday signalled that an interest rate hike was on the table for June.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) , Fresnillo (Other OTC: FNLPF - news) , BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) and Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) were all down between 4.2 percent to 5.9 percent as a stronger dollar put pressure on metals prices, as metals became more expensive for buyers paying with other currencies.

"With June now live, you can hardly ... (blame) people continuing to push into the U.S. dollar which spells a difficult period for commodity prices, which makes it difficult for miners," IG'S Beauchamp said.

Fresnillo was also hit by a downgrade to "sell" from "neutral" by Citi.

Royal Mail Plc (LSE: RMG.L - news) dropped 3.5 percent after warning it faced slightly higher than expected costs to modernise its operations in what it said was an extremely competitive domestic market.

Merlin also warned of tough trading conditions, saying London was a tough market as it reported results broadly in line with expectations. Its shares fell 2.8 percent.

Stocks going ex-dividend also weighed, with financial services firm Provident Financial (Other OTC: FPLPF - news) falling 3.5 percent.

ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia format from 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it will include the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service, Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research and market zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves will continue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue to provide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions or feedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.

Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA. (Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Alison Williams and John Stonestreet)