EgyptAir Crash: Flight Data Seems to 'Point Toward a Bomb' as First Images of Debris Emerge

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 5/21/16 | Raf Sanchez

[tellw]

Data from the final moments before EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed into the Mediterranean suggest an "internal explosion" tore through the right side of the aircraft, a pilot said last night.

Investigators trying to determine whether the A320 was brought down by terrorism or a technical fault are poring over a series of warnings indicating smoke filled the cabin shortly before it disappeared from radar.

French authorities confirmed that smoke detectors went off aboard the flight a few minutes before it crashed but said it was not clear what caused the smoke or fire.

A commercial pilot with a major European airline told The Telegraph that other parts of the data log suggested that windows in the right side of the cockpit were blown out by an explosion inside the aircraft.

"It looks like the right front and side window were blown out, most probably from inside out," said the pilot, who flies an A330 similar to the crashed A320 and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The data was taken from the plane's Acars system, which sends short transmissions from the aircraft to receivers on the ground.

Until investigators find the aircraft's black boxes, which are still missing in the Mediterannean, the Acars offers the best sens on what was happening aboard.

Three different warnings showed there were faults in the windows next to the co-pilot, suggesting they could have been blasted outwards by an onboard bomb. That does not mean the explosion came from the cockpit but indicates the right side of the plane was more badly damaged than the left.

The pilot suggested the smoke detectors may have been triggered not fire but by fog which filled the cabin as it lost air pressure in the moments after the explosion

[pepsionice]

All you needed was some kid on the serve-wagon team at the Paris airport, who put some small explosive into the wagon that he delivered to the airplane prior to take-off. If it’s stored near the first-class area...it’d be near the front and affect the those windows.

Face it....there’s probably over 200 people (service crew, maintenance, clean-up crew) who could have done something like this. You simply can’t run a 24-hour a day, 365-day a year security check device on these 200-people.

[cynwoody]

When do we stop this foolishness and annihilate them all?

That would be collective punishment. Can't have that.

E.g., war's over, a few hundred thousand Japs having been eliminated just before, and the President goes fishin' ...

BTW, he had a D after his name.

[cynwoody]

A veritable mini-Vesuvius. LOL! And no need to wait 2000 years!

[Elsie]

hitting the cockpit window behind him.

I don't think they shatter into tiny pieces like a car window does.

[SunkenCiv]

/bingo