In the early hours of this morning ( 3 January ) Flash Airlines flight 604 from Sharm El Sheikh, a Boeing 737, carrying 135 French tourists, one Moroccan and 13 Egyptian crew crashed suddenly and without warning, about three minutes after take off from Sharm El-Sheikh airport. The crash location was approximately 8 miles south of the airport. Visibility was excellent and the windspeed was light - 5mph - ESE. The aircraft was one of only two owned by Flash Airlines and according to the company website was both modern and well equipped "Flash Airlines fleet Boeing 737-300, is equipped with powerful CFM 56-3C1 engines, with 22000 ibs / thrusts and the up-to-date computerized navigational instruments such as WAS II and GPS" Witnesses on the ground are reported to have stated that it had apparent difficulties just moments after take-off at 04.45am local time. The notoriously bad safety reputation of Egyptian airlines - and particularly Egypt Air - is only rivalled by their apparent vulnerability to sabotage and terrorism. So, this time, is it terrorism or a mechanical fault ? There is already speculation that it could be a repeat of an accidental triggering of the thrust reverser soon after takeoff which some speculated may have been behind the crash of Egyptair flight 990 (see further down). But flight 990 was a different aircraft - a 767 and there is more worrying circumstantial factors pointing to a strong possibility of a terrorist attack. While Sharm El-Sheikh airport sometimes presents difficulties to aircraft due to the surrounding mountains - this aircraft dissappeared without trace from radar screens over the Red Sea. It also took place on a date, just at the end of the peak Christmas season when the airplane was almost certain to be fully booked. The event also takes place against the recent decision of the French government to ban female muslim students from wearing the hijab in state schools and while British prime minister Tony Blair was staying at the resort. It also follows closely on American intelligence warnings regarding British and French flights to the United States. For just over a year (Since December 2002) GayEgypt.com has posted a warning regarding the dangers of terrorism in the Sinai area of Egypt since the attempted assasination of US Ambassador, David Welsh, during an attack on his convoy on the way back from Sharm El-Sheik to Cairo. Here are extracts of what we wrote ( extracts all in green ) "Indeed the (local) Bedouin have a closer afinity to Saudi Arabs, especially those of the Hejaz, than they do to the remote and disliked Egyptian government. It would certainly not be difficult for Al-Qaida or other Islamic terrorists to find refuge here...................... Considerable concern must be mounting about Egypt's porous frontiers. If the attackers came from outside Egypt it wouldn't have been necessary for them to fly in. They probably used easier less secure access ports. The daily, often overcrowded, passenger ferries from Jeddah to Suez would be an obvious choice. Checks here are likely to have been perfunctory at best. But of more immediate concern, must be the threat these men may now pose to the exposed Red Sea tourist resorts. The terrorists may find it difficult to escape from the Sinai, a mountainous peninsular virtually surrounded by sea, which has only a limited number of exit routes. Now cornered, they may chose to target European or Israeli tourists who will be flooding into Sinai for Christmas and the New Year. Many of the modern hotels in Sinai are far more vunerable to terrorist attack than the towering single entrance hotel blocks in Cairo. Many of the Sinai hotels sprawl out over a huge area. Typically the bigger resorts may have hundreds of chalets, each with their own door, adjacent zig-zagging pathways running besides streams, fountains and man-made beaches. If it is easy for elderly white gay tourists with their far younger and darker Egyptian boyfriends to evade hotel security, how much easier it must be for unauthorized Egyptians or other Arabs to get inside such tourist enclaves......................... Pick-up trucks, similar to the one used on the failed attack on the American Ambassador, serve as the main type of local taxi for tourists travelling around Dahab. They are often full of backpackers and late night partygoers. So there will obviously be serious concern that the small town might all too tragically become a "Bali by the Red Sea." However there is also an argument pointing to a possible repeat of a mechanical weakness suspected as a cause for the crash of Egyptair flight 990, a Boeing 767, in 1999. This is an extract from news commentary on the 1999 disaster. "The thruster was deactivated when the plane began its flight to Cairo from New York but experts said the deactivation pin could have failed and the thrust reverser could have been deployed - just as it was on another Boeing 767 manufactured at the same time, the Lauda Air jet which crashed in Thailand in 1991." Here is a chronology of Egypt Air accidents in the last 30 years. The current accident involves a Flash Air charter aircraft - but it is also an Egyptian owned airline. January 2, 1971 -- An EgyptAir Comet 4 went down in sand dunes four miles (six km) short of the runway on approach to Tripoli, Libya, killing all eight crew and eight passengers. January 29, 1973 -- An EgyptAir Ilyushin 18 plane crashed into a mountain on approach to Nicosia, Cyprus, killing all seven crew and 30 passengers. December 25, 1976 -- An EgyptAir Boeing 707 crashed into a textile mill on approach to Bangkok, killing all nine crew and 43 passengers. Twenty people on the ground also died. November 23, 1985 - An EgyptAir Boeing 737-200 was hijacked to Valletta, Malta, and, after several hours of negotiations, Egyptian troops stormed the aircraft. The hijackers threw several hand grenades. Two of the six crew members and 58 of the 90 passengers were killed. October 31, 1999 - An EgyptAir Boeing 767 went down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Massachusett's state island of Nantucket on a flight from New York to Cairo with 212 people on board. May 7, 2002 - An EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 with around 62 passengers and crew on board crashed as it was attempting to land at Tunis airport, killing at least 20 people. January 3, 2004 - An Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner crashed into the Red Sea after take-off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 135 passengers and six crew. |