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Too Soon to Dismiss Terror as Cause of Egyptian Air Disaster
DEBKAfile Special Analysis ^ | January 3, 2004

Posted on 01/03/2004 2:03:20 PM PST by priceofreedom

Too Soon to Dismiss Terror as Cause of Egyptian Air Disaster

DEBKAfile Special Analysis

January 3, 2004, 8:20 PM (GMT+02:00)

Hours after an privately chartered Egyptian airplane crashed in the Red Sea at 04.44 local time on Saturday, January 3, just after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh, French Justice Minister Dominique Perben asked prosecutors to open a preliminary inquiry for manslaughter. The justice ministry in Paris said tactfully that the manslaughter inquiry “does not prejudge in any way the causes of the catastrophe,” but provides a legal framework for a joint French-Egyptian investigation.

There were no survivors of the 148 people aboard the plane, 13 of whom were crew and most of the others French tourists with their families, bound for Charles de Gaulle after a refueling stop at Cairo.

The Egyptians claimed that the crash of a Boeing 737, operated by the Egyptian company Flash Airlines, was “absolutely not the result of a terrorist act but is linked to a technical failure of the plane. DEBKAfile’s aviation experts say the investigators will be called upon to consider a host of anomalies and enigmas before they reach any such definite conclusion.

1. Was it a coincidence that the disaster occurred amid the heightened aviation alert that led to the cancellation of seven US-bound flights in the week from Christmas to January 2?

2. Updated intelligence reports have revealed one or more trained al Qaeda pilots penetrating international airlines in the Middle East or Europe and standing by for a chance – or an order - to hijack a passenger airliner.

3. Suggestively, the Egyptian plane vanished abruptly from radar screens before the air crew had a chance to send out a distress call or any other signal. It looked very much as though the craft had plummeted into the sea too suddenly for any warnings; it may even have exploded in midair before dropping into the water. In that case, the cause of the explosion would have to be investigated. An eyewitness said people heard a very loud noise at the time of the crash.

4. The stricken aircraft plunged down very close to the Sinai coast opposite the shore of Saudi Arabia. Yet, several hours after the disaster, no survivors had surfaced – as normally happens when a complete craft plunges into deep water - and no large wing sections or pieces of fuselage, as would normally have been expected - only small pieces of wreckage and tens of body parts. Floating bits of debris and personal possessions were clearly visible from Naama Bay half a mile from the rescue area.

5. The Egyptian assertion of a mechanical fault does not quite accord with the initial response from French transport minister Dominique Busserau who said: “The plane had a problem after take-off and then tried to turn and it was at that minute that it apparently crashed.” However, Egyptian aviation sources say the plane was maintained regularly in Norway and there was no sign of any mechanical fault before its last flight.

6. Another odd feature of the episode is the unusual lack of response from the Saudi, Israeli, Jordanian air forces and the American warships cruising in the Tiran Straits and the Red Sea. In an exceptionally tense time, when all military electronic instruments in the region, including those of the Egyptian air force, are most certainly at peak vigilance for al Qaeda-piloted intruders, the plunging Egyptian airliner must have appeared on all their radar screens from the moment of its take-off. Because of its situation close to Jordan and Israel and opposite the big northern Saudi air base at Tubuk on the Jordanian frontier, Sharm el-Sheik is one of the most sensitive corners in the world. Why has no word come in from anyone around it?

7. The Sharm el-Sheikh air disaster recalls the last Egyptian air disaster in 1999 when EgyptAir’s 990 Boeing 767 crashed opposite the American coast of Massachusetts shortly after takeoff, killing all 217 aboard. At the time, the Egyptian authorities attributed the disaster to unusual atmospheric conditions on the East Coast, a claim never confirmed by US authorities. In a subsequent federal probe, US aviation authorities established that the co-pilot, Jamil Batouty, who was not supposed to be on duty at the time, took over the controls and put the plane into a sharp nosedive shouting Allah is Great! in Arabic.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reported then that a large group of Egyptian air force officers were aboard, flying home from counter-terror combat and fighter jets courses in the United States. Our sources learned that Batouty has been assigned by his known Egyptian Jihad Islami connections in Los Angels and Cairo to carry out a kamikaze mission to destroy this group.

8. British prime minister Tony Blair was vacationing at the Sharm el-Sheikh resort with his wife and four children. The day of the crash was supposed to be the last day of his end-of-year holiday. From the moment the disaster was reported, no word was released about their whereabouts. If the Air Flash charter tragedy was indeed staged by al Qaeda to coincide with the Blair family’s presence at the Sinai resort, it would be further evidence of the terrorist group’s audacity and intelligence prowess.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: debka; flashair; flashaircrash; plancrash
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1 posted on 01/03/2004 2:03:21 PM PST by priceofreedom
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To: priceofreedom
Wow! There's a dangerous conclusion.
3 posted on 01/03/2004 2:06:38 PM PST by Roberts
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To: All
Free Republic!
It's a wonderful site!
Please help keep it that way. Make a donation!

4 posted on 01/03/2004 2:07:03 PM PST by Support Free Republic (Freepers post from sun to sun, but a fundraiser bot's work is never done.)
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To: priceofreedom
If it was a terrorist attack do you think they would tell us?
5 posted on 01/03/2004 2:08:34 PM PST by linn37 (Have you hugged your Phlebotomist today?)
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To: priceofreedom
Regardless how this turns out, the mideast countries take a hit. It's ironic the French are involved in this manner.
6 posted on 01/03/2004 2:12:34 PM PST by realpatriot (Leaving the tagline unchanged for now)
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To: linn37
A Great Question Indeed.....
7 posted on 01/03/2004 2:13:24 PM PST by priceofreedom (On A Roadmap To Hell)
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To: realpatriot
Even though I mourn any death, it's hard not to feel that the French had it coming to them. Unfortunately it was not Chirac himself on the flight.
8 posted on 01/03/2004 2:15:09 PM PST by priceofreedom (On A Roadmap To Hell)
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To: priceofreedom
There was a great deal of effort to deny that the Egypt Air flight that went down off Rhode Island (Conneticut?) a few years back was a result of Islamist terrorism or craziness.

That flight was filled with Egyptian military officers that had been to a training school in the US. Wasn't that determined to be the reason the flight was brought down by the copilot?

9 posted on 01/03/2004 2:21:31 PM PST by HardStarboard (Dump Wesley Clark.....he worries me as much as Hillary!)
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To: priceofreedom
Perhaps someone could write a book saying that the French Gov't knew about this beforehand, or downed the flight themselves for political reasons...
10 posted on 01/03/2004 2:24:19 PM PST by Cyclops08
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To: priceofreedom
Someone's gonna have to convince me that terrorists AREN'T involved in this crash.
11 posted on 01/03/2004 2:29:25 PM PST by demkicker
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To: Cyclops08
Maybe the conspiracy theory would be that Tony Blair did it to prove the underlying relationship between French and Arabs trying to threaten him for his role in Iraq....possibilities are endless
12 posted on 01/03/2004 2:34:59 PM PST by priceofreedom (On A Roadmap To Hell)
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To: demkicker
Im with you, call me cynical but i will just think the worst and hope for the best.
13 posted on 01/03/2004 2:36:32 PM PST by priceofreedom (On A Roadmap To Hell)
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To: priceofreedom
DEBKA doesn't mention the most obvious possibility:

That FLASH charter airlines had not made mandated repairs to the rudder, and this would be about the SIXTH 737 to go down, unexpectedly, due to rudder malfunction.

14 posted on 01/03/2004 2:40:22 PM PST by sinkspur (Adopt a shelter dog or cat! You'll save one life, and maybe two!)
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To: priceofreedom
"An eyewitness said people heard a very loud noise at the time of the crash."

Ya think?!
15 posted on 01/03/2004 3:16:56 PM PST by Gunrunner2
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To: HardStarboard
I thought the Egyptian pilot was about to be fired by his company and was "losing face."
16 posted on 01/03/2004 3:26:02 PM PST by leadpenny
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To: HardStarboard
"There was a great deal of effort to deny that the Egypt Air flight that went down off Rhode Island (Connecticut?) a few years back was a result of Islamist terrorism or craziness."

Do recall some "craziness" popping up here and there to float another conspiracy thing.

"That flight was filled with Egyptian military officers that had been to a training school in the US."

The Egyptian military has scores of officers in the US at any given time. These officers are training in any number of things, from English language, computer skills, how to operate and maintain a front loader to how to fly F-16's or operate an M1 tank. Egypt is not rich like other Arab nations, and therefore, they do not fly regular flights on non-Egyptian airlines. They fly on Egypt Air, the national airline of Egypt. Therefore, on these flights, that leave about once a week, most all (if not all at some times) the seats are filled with Egyptian military officers. Nothing strange there. Further, the Egyptian military is based upon the old Soviet model where you have no skilled enlisted, very few NCO's and officers do the manual labor a US enlisted would perform. Consequently, the presence of Egyptian officers is not unusual nor strange nor a lucrative target---there simply were no "high ranking" (meaning powerful) officers on-board.

"Wasn't that determined to be the reason the flight was brought down by the copilot?"

Co-Pilot was experiencing some, shall we say, "personal problems." He was a piss-poor pilot, been disciplined for it, recently was in trouble for acting as a cad in NYC, and a few other things I'll not talk about here. That said, he did go nuts and killed all and himself.

The only people that had any stake in trying to deny terrorism were the Egyptians themselves, as they simply cannot accept responsibility for a nutty pilot. It isn't in their nature. (This should not be news, as the Islamic mind never accepts responsibility, it must always be someone else’s fault or the Vast Jewish Conspiracy in action.)

Egypt Air is also rated, at the time, 113 out of about 120 of the world's airlines when it comes to flight safety. The "powers" in Egypt understood it was becoming too hard for them to keep blaming others and they engaged the National Civil Aviation Authority (NCATO) to build a FAA-style flight standards agency to bring them up to speed and reduce mishaps and weed out the nutty pilots.

Unfortunately, 9-11 happened and the scarce funds for the new initiative were diverted to other security actions and that project was placed on hold.
17 posted on 01/03/2004 3:31:46 PM PST by Gunrunner2
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To: demkicker
Wonder if Jacque ignored any kind of warning regarding this flight? The passendgers were ALL French and the crew was all middle eastern??
18 posted on 01/03/2004 3:41:21 PM PST by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: priceofreedom
Its never too soon to dismiss terror. Heck, our Gov't would dismiss it unless its patently obvious like four planes hitting at once.
19 posted on 01/03/2004 3:48:25 PM PST by VRWC_minion (Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and most are right)
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To: Gunrunner2
Gunrunner2 - thanks for the authoritative reply. Straightened out some gaps in my memory of the whole deal.

Cheers

20 posted on 01/03/2004 7:01:18 PM PST by HardStarboard (Dump Wesley Clark.....he worries me as much as Hillary!)
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