Egypt Air Flight 804

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Egypt Air Flight 804
EgyptAir Airbus A320 (SU-GCC) on finals at Ataturk Airport.jpg

The accident machine (SU-GCC) in 2011
Accident summary
Accident type Wil be inspected
place Levant Sea
date 19th May 2016
Fatalities 66
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Airbus A320-232
operator Egypt Air
Mark SU-GCC
Departure airport Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport
Destination airport Cairo International Airport
Passengers 56
crew 10
Lists of aviation accidents

Coordinates: 33 ° 41 ′  N , 28 ° 48 ′  E

Egypt Air flight 804 ( flight number MS804 or MSR804 ) was a daily scheduled flight by Egypt Air from Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport to Cairo , on which an Airbus A320-232 on the night of May 18-19, 2016 ( Aircraft registration : SU-GCC) crashed over the Mediterranean Sea for a previously unexplained cause. All inmates were killed.

The Airbus was supposed to land in Cairo at 01:10 UTC . According to the radar data, the last transponder signal was sent at 00:30 UTC at the normal cruising altitude of approx. 37,000 feet ( flight level 370). At this point in time the machine had roughly reached the area of ​​the Egyptian air surveillance and was located between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian city of Alexandria . Due to the sudden crash of the aircraft from cruising altitude without the cockpit crew having made an emergency call beforehand, an attack was considered possible from the start.

plane

The Airbus A320-232 with the serial number 2088 completed its maiden flight on July 25, 2003 and had been registered on Egypt Air since November 3, 2003 . It was used on this route for the first time in at least two months. The route was previously flown regularly with a B737-800 . The crashed Airbus was equipped with two IAE -V2527-A5 engines. The vice chairman of Egypt Air , Ahmed Adel, told the news channel CNN that there were no indications of malfunctions and that the aircraft was without defects. There were no relevant entries in the technical log for the period of 25 days prior to the flight.

Passengers and crew members

Flight MS804: nationalities of passengers
nationality number
EgyptEgypt Egypt 30th
FranceFrance France 15th
IraqIraq Iraq 2
CanadaCanada Canada 1 or 2)
BelgiumBelgium Belgium 1
AlgeriaAlgeria Algeria 1
KuwaitKuwait Kuwait 1
PortugalPortugal Portugal 1
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 1
SudanSudan Sudan 1
ChadChad Chad 1
United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom / Australia
AustraliaAustralia  		1
total 56

There were 66 people on board, including 56 passengers, seven crew members and three flight safety attendants . Since machines of this type usually offer space for just over 140 passengers, with Egypt Air even for 145 passengers, the flight can be regarded as comparatively weak. Among the passengers were 30 people with Egyptian and 15 people with French citizenship. Ten other nationalities were represented in one case (or in two cases) with two, otherwise only with one passenger. The flight captain Mohamed Said Shoukair had 6,275 flight hours of flight experience, including 2101 hours on the aircraft type, the first officer had a total flight experience of 2,675 flight hours. Among the passengers of the Director were Procter & Gamble in Amiens , Ahmed Helal, and the Egyptian TV actress Mervat Zakaria , who starred in the in the 1980s soap opera The Journey of Mr. Abo el-Ella al-Bershery played would have.

Flight history

Schematic of the route of Flight MS804 Note
Schematic representation of the previous flights of the Egypt Air machine since May 18, 2016 (times given are departure times according to local time)

The Airbus A320-232 took off from Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport on May 18, 2016 at 11:21 p.m. local time (9:21 p.m. UTC) with a 36-minute delay and was due to take off on May 19 at 3:10 a.m. local time ( 01:10 UTC) land at Cairo International Airport. After take-off, the aircraft rose to its cruising altitude of 37,000 feet (approx. 11,300 m) in France  , which it reached around 24 minutes after take-off around 11:45 p.m. CEST (9:45 p.m. UTC). Then the machine crossed Switzerland , Italy , the Adriatic Sea , Croatia , Albania , Greece and finally from about 01:50 CEST (23:50 UTC), after flying over Athens , the Mediterranean again , with Crete at a few kilometers last Distance on the northeast side was passed.

Around 02:30 CEST (00:30 UTC), the aircraft was just entering the Egyptian air surveillance area southeast of Crete when the radar contact with the aircraft at cruising altitude was abruptly broken off. According to the Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos , the aircraft is said to have made a 90-degree curve to the left at an altitude of around 11,000 m and rapidly lost altitude. The machine then made a 360-degree turn to the right before disappearing from the radar screens at a height of around 4,570 m. These statements are based on radar recordings from the Greek military . This was initially contradicted by the Egyptian side. Accordingly, the radar contact to the machine at 37,000 feet was abruptly lost without changing course. A newly submitted interim report by the French Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (BEA) on June 14, 2016 shows that the Egyptian investigation commission in Cairo has now been presented with radar data from the Egyptian military showing the noticeable change of course to the left with the final full circle flight shortly before the Confirmed crash.

The last known position of the aircraft is about 240 km southeast of the Greek island of Karpathos in an area of ​​the Levantine Sea with a depth of 2000 to over 4000 meters. On May 21, a BEA spokesman confirmed media reports that minutes before the aircraft's ACARS system had issued reports on the one hand about smoke in an aircraft toilet and in the area where the avionics are housed, on the other hand about the shutdown of some systems . Recording of the data stopped while the aircraft was still at cruising altitude.

search

Under the direction of a Rescue Coordination Center , the responsible SAR services from Egypt , Greece , France and other countries took part in aircraft and ships in the search for the machine or traces of it in a search area of ​​around 74 km².

On the morning of May 20, the Egyptian military reported the find of debris, personal items and seats as well as body parts of occupants of the crashed plane in the Mediterranean Sea, around 290 km north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, which Egypt Air confirmed to the BBC . The space agency ESA announced that the radar satellite Sentinel-1 A about 40 kilometers southeast of the last known position of the A320 could possibly locate a two-kilometer oil spill on the water. Three BEA employees and a representative from Airbus are supporting the Egyptian authorities on site with the investigation.

On June 1, a BEA spokesman announced that the French special ship Laplace with three special detectors for underwater location on board had received the signals from a flight recorder . Another special ship, the John Lethbridge , which is equipped with a remote-controlled diving robot for deep-sea operations, was also brought into the search area u. a. for the exact location and recovery of the flight recorder. The manufacturers of the flight recorders had promised to send out the underwater direction finding signals until at least June 24, 2016.

On June 15, the Egyptian Commission of Inquiry announced that the John Lethbridge had found several places with wreckage that are said to have come from the plane that crashed. The first images have been sent and a map of the sites will be created. It was also emphasized that all parts found so far are still in the possession of the law enforcement authorities and are subject to standard forensic technology examinations. Only after they have been completed would they be released for technical investigation. One day later, on June 16, the John Lethbridge was able to recover the memory unit of the damaged and broken into several parts voice recorder (CVR) using a diving robot. The intact storage unit was brought to Alexandria for further analysis. In the same way as the CVR, the memory unit of the flight data recorder (FDR), which was also broken into several parts, was recovered a day later . The mapping of the wreckage scattered on the seabed continued from the John Lethbridge .

Investigation of the cause of the crash

The retrieved memory units of the flight recorders were first handed over to the Egyptian Public Prosecutor's Office, which then forwarded them to the technical investigation committee at the Central Department for Aircraft Accidents in the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation after approval.

On June 18, 2016, the first investigations of the storage units began with the participation of French and American specialists as well as technicians from the aircraft manufacturer with an elaborate drying process. First of all, the memory chips were freed of salt deposits, as there was at least one circuit that initially prevented the memory from being read out correctly.

According to the flight recorder, a fire is said to have broken out in the front of the aircraft. There are also said to have been attempts to extinguish the fire. This is in accordance with the previous ACARS warning messages issued from the aircraft toilet and front avionics .

On September 16, 2016, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported that traces of explosives had been found on the wreckage. The Egyptian Ministry of Aviation confirmed on December 15, 2016 that remains of explosives had also been found on crash victims. Accordingly, the Egyptian authorities in particular, as from the beginning, suspected an attack, while the French investigations found no further explosives. The French investigators complained about a lack of cooperation between the Egyptians and suspected an exploded tablet and a resulting fire in the immediate vicinity of the cockpit as the cause of the crash.

At the end of May 2018, the Egyptian accident investigators also rejected the thesis of a targeted attack and also spoke of a fire on board the machine as the cause of the crash. The BEA criticized the opaque and uncooperative way of working of its Egyptian colleagues and asked them to continue to investigate the hypothesis of a fire on board "in the interests of air traffic safety".

In a report by the French judiciary in April 2019, the pilots are accused of failing to report technical defects on the aircraft that had repeatedly occurred on five previous flights. A lack of care when carrying out maintenance work has accordingly impaired the airworthiness of the machine. The chairman of Egypt Air, Ahmed Adel, contradicted the thesis expressed.

As of June 2020, there was no final report on the accident.

MS804 in the context of other Egyptian aircraft accident investigations

It is not the first time that Egyptian investigators contradict the crash thesis of the investigators cooperating with them in a multinational aircraft accident investigation:

  • On October 31, 1999, a Boeing 767 crashed into the Atlantic on Egypt Air Flight 990 off the coast of the United States , killing all 217 people on board. The American Aviation Safety Authority (NTSB) came to the conclusion, due to anomalies in the recording of the voice recorder and investigations in the area of First Officer Gamil El-Batouti, that the latter had deliberately crashed the machine because he was awaiting disciplinary action for sexual misconduct . The Egyptian investigators contradicted the suicide thesis and attributed the crash in their final report to a loss of control as a result of an elevator defect , which the NTSB in turn ruled out. The controversy between the NTSB and the Egyptian investigators could never be resolved.
  • On October 31, 2015, an Airbus A321-200 on Kogalymavia flight 9268 crashed into a desert area on the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 occupants. On the same day, Wilayat Sinai , the Egyptian offshoot of the Islamic State , admitted to deliberately causing the plane crash in retaliation for Russia's intervention in the Syrian war and posted fuzzy, unverified, video recordings online showing an airplane exploding in flight was seen. The Russian aviation safety authority confirmed a day later that the Airbus had broken up in the air, the head of the FSB , Alexander Bortnikov , declared on November 17 that there was no doubt that an explosive attack was the cause of the crash. Despite these circumstances, Egyptian investigators attributed the crash to a technical defect very early on and maintained their thesis for months, probably in fear of negative consequences for the tourism industry in the country, until they finally joined the attack thesis on February 24, 2016.

In view of these circumstances, what is surprising in the case of Flight 804 is the fact that here for the first time - and this time in the opposite constellation - Egyptian investigators assumed a deliberately caused plane crash. Viewed from a different perspective, the work of the Egyptian aviation authority corresponds to that of previous investigations. In this way, it draws attention away from possible Egyptian responsible persons - the airline and the aircraft crew - and at the same time promotes speculation about possible security gaps at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport . At the same time, this relativizes the inadequate security policy at Sharm el-Sheikh airport , which had only made it possible to carry out the attack on Kogalymavia flight 9268 a few months earlier.

Reactions

  • On May 19, 2016, Egypt Air changed the flight number of the daily scheduled flight from Paris to Cairo from 804 to 802 with immediate effect. The outbound flight from Cairo to Paris now has flight number 801 instead of 803.

Web links

Commons : Egypt-Air-Flug 804  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Attack on MS804? - “The event must have been very, very brutal”. in: Die Welt , May 19, 2016, accessed June 21, 2016.
  2. ↑ Flight Activity History (MSR804) at flightaware.com, accessed June 1, 2016
  3. ^ Egyptair SU-GCC (Airbus A320 - MSN 2088). airfleets.net, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  4. ^ SU-GCC - Airbus A320-232 - 2088. jetphotos.net, accessed on May 19, 2016 .
  5. ↑ EgyptAir Flight 804: Are the chips still readable? News Video (Min: 2: 04–2: 17). CNN , June 21, 2016, accessed June 22, 2016 : “We have no indications of anything or any malfunctions with the engines as of now. The aircraft was a healthy aircraft. In the 25 days prior to the flight, there was no snags in the technical logbook. "
  6. ↑ a b c Simon Hradecky: Crash: Egypt A320 over Mediterranean on May 19th 2016, aircraft missing. The Aviation Herald , May 19, 2016, accessed May 19, 2016 .
  7. ↑ a b Statement by Minister Dion on the crash of EgyptAir flight MS804 . May 19, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
  8. ↑ Egypt Air flight MS804: Australian on board plane that vanished over Mediterranean . May 20, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ Egypt Air's Airbus A320 crashed into the sea , accessed on May 19, 2016.
  10. ↑ Qatar Airways Airbus A320-232. seatexpert.com, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Seat Map Air Astana Airbus A320 232. seatmaestro.com, accessed on May 20, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Seat Map Egyptair Airbus A320 232. seatmaestro.com, accessed on May 20, 2016 .
  13. ↑ EgyptAir flight MS804 crash: debris 'not from missing plane' - as it happened. The Guardian, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Victims of EgyptAir MS804, terror attack 'named as former TV actress, and captain promoted four days Earlier. Standard, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Flight route from MS804 at Flightradar24
  16. ↑ Egypt Air 804 18./19. May, "FlightAware" accessed June 3, 2016
  17. ↑ Egypt Air 804, flight tracking log 18./19. May, FlightAware , accessed June 3, 2016
  18. ↑ Playback of EgyptAir flight MS804 / MSR804. flightradar24.com, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  19. ↑ The EgyptAir plane staggered and crashed. Berliner Zeitung , May 19, 2016, accessed on May 19, 2016 .
  20. ↑ EgyptAir: Crashed flight MS804 'did not swerve' , BBC News. May 24, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2016. 
  21. ↑ a b Accident de l'Airbus A320, immatriculé SU-GCC et exploité par Egyptair, survenu le 19/05/2016 au large des côtes égyptiennes [Enquête menée par AIB / Egypte - information du 14/06/16 11H45] 14. June 2016 BEA interim report (French), accessed June 15, 2016
  22. ↑ Aviation Safety Network - Entry via MS804
  23. ↑ Search for wreck: EgyptAir machine staggered before it crashed. spiegel.de, May 19, 2016, accessed on May 20, 2016 .
  24. ^ Topographical Mediterranean map at UC Press E-Books Collection 1982-2004, California Digital Library of the University of California
  25. ↑ Topography-Mediterranean Basin. nawi-reisen.at, accessed on May 20, 2016 .
  26. ↑ EgyptAir: Smoke detected inside cabin before crash. BBC News , May 21, 2016, accessed May 21, 2016 .
  27. ↑ The aircraft reported smoke in the on-board toilet. Spiegel Online , May 21, 2016, accessed May 21, 2016 .
  28. ↑ Wreckage discovered in the Mediterranean , T-Online, May 19, 2016, accessed on July 4, 2016.
  29. ↑ a b c Ship receives signals from EgyptAir flight recorder. In: Zeit online , June 1, 2016, accessed June 2, 2016.
  30. ↑ a b Electronics from MS804 reported by Qualm , ZEIT ONLINE, May 21, 2016, accessed on June 2, 2016.
  31. ↑ EgyptAir crash: 'Debris found' from flight MS804. BBC News, May 20, 2016, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  32. ^ EgyptAir confirms debris find. BBC News, May 20, 2016, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  33. ↑ Vol d'EgyptAir: des débris de l'avion retrouvés en Méditerranée. France 24 , May 20, 2016, accessed May 20, 2016 (French).
  34. ↑ Search parties locate signals from flight recorders. Spiegel Online , June 1, 2016, accessed June 1, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Black Box From Missing EgyptAir Flight 804 Is Said to Be Detected , New York Times , June 2, 2016, accessed June 2, 2016.
  36. ↑ Investigation Progress Report (8) by the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ministry of Civil Aviation, June 15, 2016, accessed June 16, 2016 (Arabic / English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.civilaviation.gov.eg
  37. ↑ Investigator: Wreckage from flight MS804 located in the Mediterranean. In. Focus , June 16, 2016, accessed July 4, 2016.
  38. ↑ Mediterranean: Search ship is said to have located wreckage of EgyptAir machine. Spiegel Online , June 15, 2016, accessed July 4, 2016.
  39. ↑ Investigation Progress Report (9) by the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ministry of Civil Aviation, June 16, 2016, accessed June 17, 2016 (Arabic / English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.civilaviation.gov.eg
  40. ^ Second flight recorder of the EgyptAir machine found , ZEIT ONLINE, June 17, 2016, accessed on June 17, 2016
  41. ↑ Investigation Progress Report (10) by the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ministry of Civil Aviation, June 17, 2016, accessed June 20, 2016 (Arabic / English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.civilaviation.gov.eg
  42. ↑ a b Interim report No. 12 of the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee ( memento of the original from September 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. June 19, 2016, (Arabic / English), accessed June 20, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.civilaviation.gov.eg
  43. ↑ Interim report No. 11 of the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. June 17, 2016, (Arabic / English), accessed June 20, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.civilaviation.gov.eg
  44. ↑ Investigation Progress Report (13) by the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. June 22, 2016, accessed June 22, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.civilaviation.gov.eg
  45. ↑ EgyptAir accident: voice recorder confirms fire on board. Spiegel Online , July 6, 2016, accessed July 13, 2016 .
  46. ↑ Egyptair crash: traces of explosive material cause confusion between Paris and Cairo. Le Figaro , September 16, 2016, accessed September 18, 2016 .
  47. ^ Spiegel Online , Hamburg: EgyptAir crash: Investigators find traces of explosives on victims. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved December 15, 2016 .
  48. ↑ aerotelegraph.com - Egypt Air crash was probably an accident , accessed on May 12, 2017
  49. ↑ Egyptair crash: Egyptians also believe in fire on flight MS804. Aerotelegraph , May 28, 2018, accessed June 30, 2018 .
  50. ↑ EgyptAir flight 804: plane crashed after a fire in the cockpit? In: Spiegel Online . July 7, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  51. ↑ EgyptAir Set For Restructuring As Questions Linger Over 2016 Crash Forbes Magazine (English) from June 14, 2019, accessed on June 22, 2019.
  52. ↑ a b https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/14/what-really-happened-to-egyptair-flight-804
  53. ↑ Holger Dambeck: Flight recorder data: Difficult search for the black box. In: Spiegel Online . June 2, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  54. ↑ https://investigativ.welt.de/2015/11/01/terroranschlag-auf-flug-7k9268-in-aeggypt/
  55. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-crash-islamic-state/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-for-russian-plane-crash-in-egypt-idUSKCN0SP0P520151031
  56. ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/isis-plane-attack-egypt-terrorists-downed-russian-metrojet-flight-from-sharm-el-sheikh-islamic-state-a6893181 .html
  57. ↑ Test bookings on May 19, 2016; BBC radio report