[Moose4]

Ouch. Even with fog in the area, this is odd, unless the plane had a serious mechanical problem, or else the clouds were very thick and the pilot got disoriented turning on departure. It's easy to put the tinfoil beanie on for this one.

OTOH, 737s have had documented problems with hydraulic valves in the rudder that caused sudden uncommanded maximum deflection--the plane would yaw sharply to one side and the pilots couldn't use the pedals to bring it back. There were at least two crashes (one in Colorado and one in Pittsburgh) attributed to the problem, and I think both were 737-300s. They've all been fixed in the US, and (I'm sure) in most countries, but maybe a small charter operator in a Third World country might not have?

}:-)4

[GeronL]

will the French get serious now???

[Pro-Bush]

Did the tower hear "Allah Akbar" before the crash? kinda like Egypt Air Flight 990.

[My Dog Likes Me]

I thought this 737 might be overloaded.

Now, we can watch the spectacle in coming days of Egyptian aviation officials blocking attempts by McDonnell-Douglas to help in the investigation.

[Jumper]

It will be interesting to see the flight mainifest of who's who onboard this plane.... Usually, important people like an entire class of Egyptian Military officers just graduating from a school in the US a few years back.....

[nuffsenuff]

If this turns out to be a terrorists attack, I called it...

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1049409/posts?page=68#68

I hope it wasn't a terrorist attack, though.

[fso301]

The Eqyptians never have recovered from the last plague of frogs.

[fso301]

The Eqyptians never have recovered from the last plague of frogs.

[FBD]

Iran faithful shout 'death to France'
SundayTimes.Co.Za ^ | Saturday January 03, 2004 08:55 - (SA) | AFP


Posted on 01/03/2004 12:04:56 AM PST by Bobby777


TEHRAN - Thousands of Muslim worshippers shouted "death to France" during weekly prayers in response to a sermon denouncing a proposal to prohibit Muslim schoolgirls in France from wearing headscarves.

Ayatollah Ahmad Janati called on Islamic countries to "threaten France with cancelling contracts and to reconsider their relations with France" over the issue.

After months of heated debate, a committee of French experts recommended in December banning "conspicuous" religious insignia from state schools, which are secular.

This would include the hijab, or headscarf; the Jewish kippa, or skullcap, and large crucifixes.

In a subsequent speech, French President Jacques Chirac came out in favour of the ban, which he wants written into law by the start of the next academic year.

But Janati assured worshippers that all that was necessary was "a roar from Muslims, and the French would back off."

He called on the French authorities to "let Muslim women express their freedom and carry out their religious obligations."

His comments were welcomed by shouts of "death to France."

Ever since Chirac spoke on December 17, Arab and Muslim countries have been voicing outrage, even if a few intellectuals dispute claims that Muslim women are bound by duty to wear the headscarf.

Numerous Iranian officials, including reformist President Mohammad Khatami and nearly 200 members of parliament, have already called on the French authorities to reject the ban.

"I hope the French government, which claims to be avant-garde in liberty, equality and fraternity, will cancel this wrong decision," Khatami said last week.

He said the "hijab is a religious necessity and its restriction is a sign of a kind of extreme nationalistic tendency."

On Monday, around 150 conservative students, including women wearing the head-to-foot chador, demonstrated in front of the French embassy in Tehran shouting "death to France" and "death to Chirac the Zionist."

AFP

[blam]

France wants formal probe into Red Sea crash

January 03 2004 at 03:39PM

Paris - French Justice Minister Dominique Perben on Saturday asked prosecutors to open a judicial inquiry for manslaughter after an Egyptian Boeing 737 crashed into the Red Sea, killing at least 133 French tourists.

A justice ministry spokesperson said the step did not "prejudge in any way the causes of the tragedy", but said it provided a legal framework within which French and Egyptian investigators could work together.

France earlier said it wanted to help Egyptian authorities "shed light on the situation" by sending a team to identify bodies and investigate the causes of the crash.

[LikeLight]

Anybody been on the big terror threat thread in the last few days?

A new graphic was posted (at least 24 hours before this crash) from a Jihadi website with a bloody hand rising out of Saudi Arabia with a map of the RED SEA area.

I'll find the link. It's too coincidental for me.

Just like the calendar that came out before 911 with the plane going down in NYC.

One Moroccan tourist? Wonder what was in his luggage?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Update here:

French, American experts to help investigate Egyptian plane crash (too soon to rule out terrorism?)