An unidentified relative of a passenger on the downed Egyptian jet weeping outside the Flash Airlines offices in Cairo on Saturday. (AP)Posted on 01/03/2004 9:07:45 AM PST by EsclavoDeCristo
SHARM EL-SHEIKH - 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 eyewitnesses said they saw no sign of survivors.
An unidentified relative of a passenger on the downed Egyptian jet weeping outside the Flash Airlines offices in Cairo on Saturday. (AP)
The plane, operated by the Egyptian company Flash Airlines, disappeared from radar screens minutes after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport at 0244 GMT and crashed in deep water to the southeast, official sources said.
"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 that there was "no sign of terrorism."
France on Saturday announced it was sending investigators to Egypt to help determine the cause of the crash.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said the crash "is not related to any terrorist act" and the Civil Aviation Ministry called it an "accident" apparently caused by a mechanical problem.
"Up until now, the cause is a technical one," Minister of Civil Aviation Ahmed Shafeeq told state-run Egyptian television. "There was a malfunction that made it difficult for the crew to ... save the plane."
A French diplomat based in Egypt said there were 135 passengers aboard, all but one French, and 13 Egyptian and Moroccan crew members. "We are still waiting for more details," the diplomat added.
The flight was headed for Paris with a stop scheduled in Cairo for a crew change, it quickly disappeared from radar south of the airport, said airport officials using customary anonymity.
French Deputy Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau told reporters Saturday at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris that the flight had a problem on take-off and the pilot tried to turn back. Egyptian airport officials said earlier there had been no distress call.
French Justice Minister Dominique Perben on Saturday asked prosecutors to open a judicial inquiry for manslaughter. A Justice Ministry spokesman 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.
Egyptian military planes, helped by many small boats from nearby diving centers, launched a rescue operation at dawn but the eyewitnesses said all they were finding was small pieces of wreckage and that no survivors appeared to have come ashore.
The plane crashed in the Strait of Tiran, between the Sinai peninsula and Saudi Arabia, where the water is about 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) deep.
"You can see very small pieces of wreckage. No big pieces of the plane are to be found. We have not seen any survivors brought ashore yet," said a witness who asked not to be named.
"They [the rescue teams] are saying they cannot find bodies, just parts of the planes," said Federico Valle, the manager of the diving centre at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh.
A Flash Airlines official said: "All we know right now is that a plane disappeared two minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh on its way to Cairo. The flight number was 8604."
Flash Airlines, an Egyptian charter airline company based in Cairo which flies to European cities, said the 737 was one of just two it owned. The company said it had been in business for six years, but provided few other details in its statement carried by MENA, the official Egyptian news agency.
According to the Flash Airlines Web site, the company's two 737-300 planes were manufactured in 1993.
At the airline's offices in Cairo, about 20 people had gathered, including weeping relatives of crew members and some journalists.
The weather was clear in Sharm el-Sheikh and other flights were taking off without incident, officials said.
The Boeing 737 had flown in early Saturday from Milan, Italy, dropping off passengers in Sharm el-Sheikh, the airline said. The new passengers then boarded for the flight to Paris via Cairo. The airplane received its maintenance checks in Norway and the most recent showed no problems, officials said.
French President Jacques Chirac phoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the crash, and to express condolences.
Eyewitnesses in Sharm el-Sheikh said the rescue operation was concentrating on an area about one kilometer off Naama Bay, the site of many large hotels.
An Egyptian armed forces C-130 transport plane and two helicopters were taking part in the search, witnesses said.
The last major crash by an Egyptian plane took place in May 2002, when a Boeing 767 of the state airline EgyptAir crashed near Tunis airport, killing 15 people.
In October 1999, an EgyptAir Boeing 767 dived into the sea off Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 people on board.
On Christmas Day, a Beirut-bound Boeing 727 smashed into the Atlantic after take-off from Benin, killing 138 people.
May 7, 2002
An Egyptair Boeing 737 has crashed on a flight from Cairo to Tunis. Early reports say at least 20 of the 55 passengers and 10 crew survived.
The aircraft came down in heavy fog and rain about four miles from Tunis-Carthage airport.
Airport officials in Tunis are quoted as saying the plane's landing gear had failed to open during the approach to the airport.
The pilot put out a distress call as he was making a second attempt to land and the control tower then lost contact with the plane.
How do you know that didn't happen? Could've been an onboard explosive.
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