Huge Power Failure Is Blamed For Air Crash (148 Dead)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1-5-2004 | Toby Harnden/Sharm el Sheikh/Henry Samuel

[blam]

Huge power failure is blamed for air crash

By Toby Harnden in Sharm el Sheikh and Henry Samuel in Paris
(Filed: 05/01/2004)

A catastrophic power failure probably caused a Boeing 737 to crash into the Red Sea, killing all 148 on board, minutes after taking off from an Egyptian diving resort, the French government said last night.

"We can never be absolutely certain but all the indications seem to point to the same theory," Gilles de Robien, the French transport minister, told Europe 1 radio.

"There was no explosion before the crash and no one has claimed responsibility for [an] attack. The arguments most commonly set out show that it was simply a loss of power." About 133 French tourists died.

The first official cause for the crash off Sharm el Sheikh came as the Swiss authorities said Flash Airlines, owners of the doomed plane, had been banned from using its airspace because of "serious shortcomings" in a spot check.

"A series of safety shortcomings showed up in a plane of Flash Airlines during a routine security check at Zurich Airport in October 2002," said Celestine Perissinotto, spokesman for the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation.

The French authorities admitted last night they were alerted by the Swiss to the airline's "shortcomings" but said the airline had later passed all the requisite tests.

Technicians from Braathens, the Norwegian airline, said the 11-year-old plane had had a major overhaul 13 months ago. "The aircraft left us in a condition which we felt was good," said Harald Rosnes, the airline's vice-president.

However, he specified that the company was not responsible for the engines. "We didn't touch the engine. They are a separate entity, independent from the rest of the aircraft," he said.

It was unclear which company was responsible for the engines' maintenance.

The preliminary conclusion was reached before either the fuselage or "black box" data recorder had been located in the sea.

There was great reluctance from Egyptian and French officials even to countenance that terrorism might have been the cause. Egyptians were very concerned about the possible effect on tourism.

Ahmed Shafeeq, the Egyptian aviation minister, dismissed the notion that a bomb could have exploded or an attempted hijacking taken place.

He suggested that "something might have gone wrong with the transmission equipment" that the pilot could not deal with.

"It's obvious to anyone who understands anything about aviation that there was a technical problem," he said. "It is very clear from the trace left by the radar."

The Boeing 737 took off from Sharm el Sheikh, bound for Cairo and Paris, at 4.44am local time on Sunday. It climbed to 5,300 ft and made a left turn before getting into trouble.

Instead of turning further left and inland towards Cairo, the plane carried on straight and then turned right before plunging into the sea. No distress call was made and the plane was lost within three minutes of leaving the runway.

The crash took place while Tony and Cherie Blair and their children were holidaying in Sharm el Sheikh. It is a popular destination for British tourists and President Hosni Mubarak, of Egypt, has a residence there.

Renaud Muselier, the deputy French foreign minister, said the bodies had been so damaged that only DNA could be used for identification.

M Muselier, accompanied by scores of cameramen and a small flotilla of boats, was taken to the crash site, where he threw a wreath of lilies into the sea.

[blam]

Is there anything new in this article?

[Support Free Republic]

[cardinal4]

The mere presence of French investigators makes me skeptical, of any preliminary suggestion as to the cause.

[Angelus Errare]

See the bin Laden tape thread, he references both Sharm al-Sheikh and Beirut, the launching and destination points of this flight, in the same sentence. So the comments about no one having claimed responsibility for an attack may have been premature, but we'll have to wait and see.

[Guillermo]

Well, there is no way that it could have been a terror attack, because France was opposed to the Iraq war...

[ConservativeMan55]

[PAR35]

Beirut, the launching and destination points of this flight,

The stories I read yesterday said that it was flying to Paris via Cairo. Could you point me to later info which shows Beirut on the flight path?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There was great reluctance from Egyptian and French officials even to countenance that terrorism might have been the cause. Egyptians were very concerned about the possible effect on tourism.

Clearly no one has a clue as to what happened.

But financial pressures cause them to say it wasn't Terrorism!!!

[hoosiermama]

Security check at airports are no good unless the repair crews are regularly scrutinized. I've said with every flight that's gone down: "Who were the mechanics?" A quick snip with a pair of pliers at the right location, could do a lot of harm....possibly even cause a power failure.

Off with the hat!

[U S Army EOD]

Poor guy hit pretty hard.

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL...that was when the first missle hit.

[Angelus Errare]

My apologies, I got it wrong, but here is the info:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1051478/posts?page=138#138

[ConservativeMan55]

[U S Army EOD]

Must not of been wearing his seat belt.

[ConservativeMan55]

The others are just kind of standing around looking at him.

[U S Army EOD]

Well he just came down out of nowhere.

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL!

[Arkie2]

Yes. A lot of nonsense "explanations" which make no sense except as a poor attempt at deflecting questions about what really took place.

[Paladin2]

The facts could just as easily support the theory that the plane (fully loaded with fuel) could have been returning to the town it departed to attack T. Blair who is alleged to have been there concurrently. Some sort of controls struggle may have ensued resulting in a high speed impact with the water.

Also there has been no discussion of exactly who may have been on the plane (either among the tourists or the few who were not alleged to be tourists).

In any event, a few facts leading to control/control surface positions at impact, estimated impact speed/angle, engine damage indicating engine speed and black box & data recovery, crew and ground crew backgrounds and whatever else crash investigations might typically use should be considered by those in charge prior to issuing what amounts to wild speculation of their fondest scenario (no trouble here, move along).

[U S Army EOD]

Good speculation on controls struggle in the cockpit especially if the fight was in cockpit right after lift off. They didn't say if the power failure was engine or electrical. Either one of those, there would have been a radio transmission. So the plot thickens.