Flash Airlines

Flash Airlines
IATA code :
ICAO code :	FSH
Call sign :	FLASH
Founding:	1995
Operation stopped:	2004
Seat:	Cairo
Turnstile :	Sharm El Sheikh
Fleet size:	2
Aims:	mainly charter flights to Central and Northern Europe
Flash Airlines ceased operations in 2004. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Flash Airlines was a charter airline from Egypt based in Cairo .

history

In 1995 the airline was founded as Heliopolis Airlines and was able to start flight operations a year later. In 2000 the company was taken over by the Flash Group and has operated as Flash Airlines since that time. With two Boeing 737-300 aircraft , the airline has specialized in domestic and international charter flights.

Due to numerous gross deficiencies (see incidents ), several European countries issued flight bans against Flash Airlines as early as 2002, including bans since October 2002 for Swiss airspace and, a little later, for Polish airspace. In Norway , air traffic control refused to cooperate with the airline. The Egyptian aviation ministry and aviation minister Ahmed Shafik rejected the accusations of the Swiss authorities as unfounded. The airline's chief pilot, Hassan Munir, referred to the airline's financial problems as the reason for the flight ban issued in Switzerland.

On January 3, 2004, Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm El Sheikh Airport .

From 2004 onwards, further events were determined by the consequences of the SU-ZCF crash. After it turned out in the course of the investigation of Flash Airlines flight 604 that essential documents about the maintenance of the machine could not be presented, Flash Airlines was banned from French airspace from then on. Although internationally prescribed (according to JAR-OPS ), the crew members at Flash Airlines were not trained through CRM training , which is intended to ensure that all crew members work together efficiently, especially in unusual situations.

Due to the numerous flight bans that had been issued for the airline and massive criticism in the media, Flash Airlines ceased operations two months after the crash.

fleet

In 1998 Flash Airlines had an Airbus A310-222 with the aircraft registration number SU-ZCC and at least one McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (Reg.SU-ZCA), which after several changes of ownership on July 24, 2014 with the Spanish registration number EC-LTV ( Swiftair ) when Air Algérie flight 5017 crashed on the flight from Ouagadougou to Algiers near Gao , Mali .

At the end of 2003, the airline's fleet consisted of two Boeing 737-300 aircraft:

• Boeing 737-3Q8 (SU-ZCD) - This aircraft was delivered to TACA in 1992 and has been in service with Flash Airlines since July 2001. Since November 23, 2004 the aircraft has been in service with Cayman Airways under the registration number VP-CAY .
• Boeing 737-3Q8 (SU-ZCF) - This machine was also delivered to TACA in 1993 and came from the Color Air fleet to the Flash Airlines fleet in November 2001 . Initially, the aircraft was registered as SU-ZCE and SU-MBA and has since been used by Air Memphis .

The attempt to rent a 737-800 from XL Airways was rejected.

Incidents

Unannounced checks by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation in 2002 on the Boeing 737-3Q8 ( Reg.SU -ZCF) showed that the oxygen masks for the cockpit crew ( quick donning masks ) were missing, which means that the pilots cannot do it in the event of a pressure drop on board would have been to supply oneself with vital oxygen. In addition, there were insufficient supplies of oxygen and several instruments in the cockpit that were not working properly. The aircraft was banned from taking off until the airline was able to rectify the defects after eight hours. A few days later, Flash Airlines was banned from flying into Swiss airspace.

In 2003 an incident occurred on board the second Boeing 737-3Q8 (reg. SU-ZCD) on a flight from Sharm El-Sheikh to Bologna when an engine fire broke out while cruising . The plane had to make a stopover, but no passenger was killed or injured in this incident.

The most devastating accident occurred in the early morning hours of January 3, 2004, when a Boeing 737-3Q8 (Reg.SU-ZCF) on Flash Airlines flight 604 to Paris-Charles de Gaulle shortly after taking off from Sharm El- Sheikh fell into the Red Sea. All 135 passengers and all 13 crew members on board were killed in the accident.

See also

• Former Airlines List (Africa)

Web links

Commons : Flash Airlines  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tour operator's website Flash
• Determination result of NTSB (PDF, 61 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Fleet overview on airfleets.net (ENG)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Doubts about the security level of the airline  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article dated January 12, 2004 (Retrieved February 3, 2010)  
3. ↑ Fleet overview on AeroTransport.org
4. ^ Republique du Mali. Ministere des Transports et du Desenclavement. Commission d'Enquete sur les Accidents et Incidents d'Aviation Civile: "Interim Report. Accident on 24 July 2014 in the Region of Gossi in Mali to the MD-83 registered EC-LTV operated by Swiftair SA" , no place, 20. September 2014
5. ↑ Information on the averted Boeing 737-800 on AeroTransport.org