Free Republic

A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.

'The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing will remain in jail while his appeal continues, a court has ruled. Lawyers for Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who has advanced prostate cancer, had asked the Appeal Court in Edinburgh to grant him interim liberation. The Libyan is appealing against his conviction for the murder of 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in 1988. A full hearing is likely to take place in the middle of next year. The judgement on the bail application was delivered on Friday by the Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton, along with Lord Kingarth and...

On October 31st 1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 struck the ocean with the loss of all on board. The end of the NTSB's final summary reads thusly "The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the EgyptAir flight 990 accident is the airplane's departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs. The reason for the relief first officer's actions was not determined."

HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, Newfoundland (AP) — An Egypt Air passenger flight carrying more than 300 passengers was diverted to Newfoundland on Monday after smoke was detected in the cockpit, an airport official said. The Boeing 777 that departed from Cairo for New York City made a safe emergency landing in Goose Bay, said Kevin Aylward, CEO of Goose Bay Airport Corp. The passengers stayed on the plane while maintenance workers repaired the problem. "It's something they were able to fix very quickly," said Aylward. He said he didn't know what the exact cause of the smoke. No fire was found...

Boeing (BA:NYSE - commentary - research) is close to a deal to sell 12 new 737-800 planes to EgyptAir for $850 million, in what would mark another victory for the Chicago aerospace giant over rival Airbus. Sherif Galal, the chief executive of EgyptAir, told reporters Friday the state-owned carrier would sign a contract for the planes next week, according to Reuters. Galal said his company chose Boeing's offer because it gave EgyptAir "numerous advantages." A Boeing spokesman confirmed EgyptAir has accepted Boeing's proposal but noted it was not yet a definitive order. Boeing anticipates finalizing the order in July, he...

After the events of 9/11, I have rehashed my thinking on these two airliner incidents. I never bought the governments explanation on TWA 800 but Ive never been a tinfoil hat kind of guy either. But the method the terrorists used in the attack of 9/11 open several lines of thought. Is it possible that Bin Laden's groups were behind these two events. It is a known fact that several hundred Stinger(hand-held, surface to air missles) were left unaccounted for in Afghanastan. We also know that Bin Laden has made a home and friends with these former mujahadeen warriors who ...

Egypt Plane Crash Kills 148; Technical Fault Blamed By Ruben Sprich Reuters Saturday, January 3, 2004; 7:15 AM SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - An Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner carrying 135 mostly French tourists crashed into the Red Sea off the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday and a rescue team member said there were no survivors. "The initial indications are that it was a technical fault, but that is only preliminary," Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary-General Hassan Abo Ghanima told Reuters. He had said earlier: "There is no sign of terrorism." The plane, operated by the Egyptian company Flash Airlines,...

NewsMax reports: "Hayadet was a radical Muslim extremist involved in terrorism, the respected Israeli intelligence Web site DEBKA.com reported today. "During his ten years in the United States, he was a secret operative of the Egyptian Jihad who maintained undercover links to the same Jihad cell in Brooklyn, New York, as the 'blind sheikh' Abdul Rahim Rahman and Ramzi Yousef. Both are doing time for perpetrating the first attack on the New York World Trade Center in 1993," DEBKA said....also believed to have abetted a previous, contrived airline disaster: On October 31, 1999, an Egyptair Boeing 767 Flight 990...copilot Gameel...

NewsMax reported in a story “Report Links LAX Shooter to Egyptian Jihad “ on July 5, 2002 that the LAX gunman Hesham Mohamed Hadayet was a secret operative of the Egyptian Jihad cell in Brooklyn, New York which helped Ramzi Youseff carry out the 1993 WTC attack. But the NewsMax story further reported that Hadayat abetted the pilot Gameel el-Batouty who deliberately crashed Egypt Air Flight 767 after it departing Los Angeles and was en route to Cairo via Kennedy airport in New York on October 31, 1999. The NewMax story also quoted other sources:. "Our sources affirm that Hadayat,...

WASHINGTON, March 15 — A former EgyptAir pilot told American investigators two years ago that the co-pilot of EgyptAir 990 crashed the plane into the Atlantic Ocean to take revenge on a company executive who had just demoted him and was riding as a passenger, a person involved in the investigation said today. American aviation investigators say they do not know whether the explanation given by the pilot, which was first reported today in The Los Angeles Times, is true. Since the crash of the Boeing 767, Egyptian officials have argued that there was no evidence that the co-pilot, Gamil...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  The federal government's final report on the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 says the co-pilot was responsible, but stops short of concluding what might have motivated him, according to government sources.</p> <p>The report is expected to be released soon.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The final report on the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 will blame copilot Gameel el Batouti for crashing the plane into the sea, National Transportation Safety Board sources confirmed to CNN on Thursday.</p> <p>They also said the report could be issued as early as next week.</p>