Flash Airlines - Boeing 737-3Q8
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
3rd January, 2004

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt On January 3, 2004, about 02:45:06 UTC, 04:45:06 Local time, Flash Airlines flight FSH604, a Boeing 737-300, Egyptian registration SU-ZCF, crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport in South Sinai, Egypt. The flight was a passenger charter flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport, France with a stopover in Cairo international Airport for refuelling. Flight 604 departed from Sharm el-Sheikh airport with 2 pilots (Captain and First Officer (F/O)), 1 observer, 4 cabin crew, 6 off-duty crew members and 135 passengers on board. The airplane was destroyed due to impact forces with the Red Sea with no survivals.

The circumstances of the accident have been established: shortly after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport, the aircraft initiated a left turn. The aircraft started banking on the left. But then, the autopilot is disconnected and the plane came back to wing level and started banking on the right, engaging a right turn. This right turn is not in the airport departure procedure.

The roll angle of the aircraft increased during 52 seconds, without any crew correction. It reached abnormally high values, which led the aircraft to pitch down and loose altitude. When the crew initiated a correction, the roll angle was slightly above 90° (the right wing is in the direction of the ground). Although an attempt to correctly recover was initiated, the gravity of the upset condition with regards to the attitude, altitude and speed made this attempt insufficient to achieve a successful recovery.

It is still unclear why the aircraft initiated a right turn, while it was supposed to continue the left turn.

Possible causes of the accidents are:

Trim / Feel Unit Fault (Aileron trim runaway)
Temporarily, spoiler wing cable jam (spoiler offset of the neutral position)
Temporarily, F/O wheel jam (spoiler offset of the neutral position)
Autopilot Actuator Hardover fault

A contributing factor is a distraction of the crew developing to spatial disorientation until the F/O announced “aircraft turning right” with acknowledgement of the captain.

	Video of the accident - Animation video showing the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 accident. The accident happened on January 3rd 2004 and killed the 148 people onboard. This animation was realised by the French aviation accidents investigation board (BEA).
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