3 aircraft accidents in Egypt since 2000

The Airbus A320-200 operated by Egyptair took off from Paris, France, for a passenger flight to Cairo, Egypt. 56 passengers and 10 crewmembers were onboard. The plane was enroute at FL370 (around 11 km) over the Mediterranean Sea about 210 NM (390 km) north-northwest of Cairo when the transponder signals of the aircraft ceased. The aircraft was located crashed in the Mediterranean Sea. All 66 people onboard were killed. The crew was talking normally to Greek air traffic control a few minutes prior the crash. When Air traffic Controllers attempted to hand the aircraft off to Egypt the crew did not respond, radar contact was lost 2 minutes after the first attempt to raise the crew for hand off. The Egyptian authorities published the following elements about the accident: The flight recorders stopped operating while the aircraft was in cruise at an altitude of 37,000 feet; The aircraft systems sent ACARS messages indicating the presence of smoke in toilets and the avionics bay; The data from the data recorder confirms these messages; The playback of the cockpit voice recorder reveals, in particular, that the crew mentioned the existence of a fire on board; Several pieces of debris were retrieved from the accident site. Some of these had signs of having been subject to high temperatures, and traces of soot. In addition, the BEA had collected the following elements: A signal from an emergency locator transmitter was sent at 00:37 (source CNES (3) ) i.e. around eight minutes after the transmission of the last ACARS message; Data from a Greek primary radar (sent by the Greek authorities to the BEA) shows that the aeroplane had descended in a turn until collision with the surface of the water. Based on these elements, the BEA considers that the most likely hypothesis is that a fire broke out in the cockpit while the aeroplane was flying at its cruise altitude and that the fire spread rapidly resulting in the loss of control of the aeroplane.

The Airbus A321-200 operated by Metrojet took off from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, for a passenger flight to St. Petersburg, Russia. 217 passengers and 7 crewmembers were onboard. 23 minutes after takeoff, while the plane was over the Sinai desert, it plummeted from the sky and crashed in Wadi Al-Zolomat, about 60 NM south of Al-Arish. All 224 occupants were killed. The plane departed the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, near the southern tip of the Sinai. It vanished from radar 23 minutes into the flight, while it was climbing through FL307 over the Sinai desert. There was no distress call from the crew. The wreckage has located in mountainous terrain straight below the last transmitted transponder position. The debris field expands 350 by 3200 meters (1150 by 10460 feet). Due to the large surface of the debris field, investigators believe that the aircraft broke up in midair. According to Egyptian Authorities, there is no evidence of hostile or missile activity around the flight path of the aircraft. The weather in the area was clear at the time of the accident. The director of Russia's Federal Security Service stated that he has studied the passengers’ personal belongings and luggage and fragments of the plane that crashed in Egypt. An expert examination of all these objects has found traces of foreign-made explosives. According to the experts, a self-made explosive device equivalent up to 1 kg of TNT was set off on board, which explains why the fragments of the aircraft were scattered over a large area. On November 17th 2015, the cause of the accident has been officially recognised as being a terrorist act.

On January 3rd 2004, at 02:45:06 UTC, 04:45:06 local time, the Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300 registered SU-ZCF in Egypt crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport (SSH) (Egypt, southern Sinai). This passenger flight, operating as FSH604, was a charter flight bound for Charles de Gaulle Airport, with a stop in Cairo to refuel. The aircraft departed Sharm el-Sheikh Airport with 2 pilots (captain and first officer), 1 observer, 4 cabin crew members, 6 off-duty crew members and 135 passengers. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact with the Red Sea. There were no survivors. The circumstances of the accident were established: shortly after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, the aircraft initiated a left turn. The aircraft therefore began banking to the left. But the autopilot was quickly disengaged and the aircraft began banking the other way (to the right), which caused it to enter a right turn. This right turn was not part of the airport departure procedure. For 52 seconds, the aircraft’s bank angle continued to increase without any intervention from the crew. The bank angle became so great that the aircraft began to pitch down and lose altitude. When the crew attempted to recover the aircraft, the bank angle was slightly greater than 90° (the aircraft was on its side). Although the crew performed the appropriate recovery manoeuvre, the aircraft’s attitude, altitude and speed did not allow the accident to be avoided. The reasons why the aircraft entered this right turn when it should have continued turning left are not very clear. Possible causes of the accident include: Trim / Feel Unit failure (aileron trim runaway) Temporary failure of a spoiler cable in the wings (spoiler position offset) Temporary failure of the first officer’s control wheel (spoiler position offset) Failure of the autopilot engagement system An aggravating factor was crew distraction, which led to spatial disorientation until the first officer announced “The aircraft is turning right” and the captain noticed it.