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French Families Weep as Egypt Holiday Turns Tragic
Saturday, January 03, 2004 7:53 a.m. ET
By Kirsten Gehmlich
PARIS (Reuters) - Relatives of some of the 133 French tourists killed in a plane crash off the Egyptian coast gathered at Paris's main airport Saturday, grieving for loved ones who had been heading home after a New Year beach holiday in the sun.
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President Jacques Chirac expressed his shock after an Egyptian airliner carrying 135 tourists and 13 crew crashed into the Red Sea shortly after take-off from the popular resort of Sharm el-Sheikh early Saturday.
A rescue team member said there were no survivors of the crash, which Egyptian authorities said was apparently caused by a technical fault.
France's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that 148 people were on board, 133 of them French tourists, and said it would take part in an enquiry into the causes of the disaster.
"It is with shock that I learned of the terrible tragedy in Egypt," Chirac said in a statement issued by his office. Relatives arriving at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport to welcome the vacationers home wept on hearing of the disaster, and were taken to a crisis center at a nearby hotel for counseling. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Transport Minister Gilles de Robien rushed to the airport, where the plane had been due to land at 9 a.m., to meet the victims' friends and relatives.
Raffarin expressed his "deep pain" over the crash. On arriving at the airport, he went straight to meet the victims' families and offer them his condolences.
The Flash Airlines charter plane was bringing home the tourists, mostly from the Paris area, after a winter sun holiday, said an employee of tour operator FRAM, which organized the trip for most of those on board.
Chirac's office said the president had called his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak to obtain "full details of the circumstances of this crisis," and had asked Foreign Affairs secretary of state Renaud Muselier to go to Egypt as soon as possible.
The Foreign Ministry said France was doing all it could to throw light on the situation and would help Egyptian authorities find and identify the bodies. It would also take part in an inquiry into the causes of the crash, it said in a statement.
Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary-General Hassan Abo Ghanima told Reuters the crash appeared to have been caused by a technical fault and said there was no sign of terrorism.
The Foreign Ministry has set up the following crisis number for families of the victims: +33 1 48 64 59 59.
Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.
