Tag Archives: Airplane crash

French, Italian firms to help search for EgyptAir black boxes

Recovered debris of the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea are seen in this still image taken from video

By Ahmed Aboulenein

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt is taking on two companies, one French and one Italian, to help search for the black boxes of an EgyptAir plane that crashed in deep water in the Mediterranean Sea, the airline’s chairman said on Wednesday

EgyptAir flight 804 crashed on May 19 with 66 people on board including 30 Egyptians and 15 from France, and nearly a week later investigators have no clear picture of the plane’s final moments.

EgyptAir chairman Safwat Musallam did not name the companies involved, but he told a news conference they were able to carry out searches at a depth of 3,000 meters.

The plane and its black box recorders, which could explain what brought down the Paris-to-Cairo flight as it entered Egyptian air space, have not been located.

The black boxes are believed to be lying in up to 3,000 meters of water, on the edge of the range for hearing and locating signals emitted by the boxes.

Maritime search experts say this means acoustic hydrophones must be towed in the water at depths of up to 2,000 meters in order to have the best chance of picking up the signals.

Until recently, aviation sources say, the US Navy or its private contractor Phoenix International were considered among the only sources for equipment needed to search on the correct frequency for black box pingers at such depths.

The US Navy said on Tuesday it had not been asked for help.

Batteries powering the signals sent from the black boxes typically last only 30 days, but the airline’s deputy chairman Ahmed Adel said the search would continue beyond then if necessary, using other means to locate the recorders.

“There are many examples in similar air accidents when 30 days passed without finding the box yet … these planes’ black boxes were found,” he said.

‘PLANE’S MACHINES WERE SAFE’

Musallam reiterated earlier comments from sources within the Egyptian investigation committee who said that the jet had shown no sign of technical problems before taking off from Paris.

He said the Airbus 320 was given a regular check by an Egyptian engineer and two Egyptian technicians at Paris airport.

“The engineer and the pilot both signed the Aircraft Technical Log which stated that the check found that all the plane’s machines were safe,” he said.

The investigation sources said the plane disappeared off radar screens less than a minute after entering Egyptian airspace and – contrary to reports from Greece – there was no sign that it had swerved sharply before crashing.

The crew did not make contact with Egyptian air traffic control, they said.

With no flight recorders to check and only fragmentary data from a handful of fault messages registering smoke in the plane in the minutes before it crashed, investigators are also looking to debris and body parts for clues.

One Egyptian forensics official said the small amount of human remains recovered pointed to an explosion on board though no trace of explosives had been detected.

But Hisham Abdelhamid, head of Egypt’s forensics authority, said this assessment was “mere assumptions” and that it was too early to draw conclusions.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Dominic Evans and Richard Balmforth)

Investigators play down explosion theory in EgyptAir crash

Recovered debris of the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea are seen in this still image taken from video

By Amina Ismail and Lin Noueihed

CAIRO (Reuters) – The head of Egypt’s forensics authority dismissed a suggestion on Tuesday that the small size of the body parts retrieved since an EgyptAir plane crashed last week indicated there was an explosion on board.

Investigators struggling to work out why the Airbus 320 jet vanished from radar screens last Thursday, with 66 passengers and crew on board, are looking for clues in the human remains and debris recovered from the Mediterranean Sea so far.

The plane and its black box recorders, which could explain what brought down the Paris-Cairo flight as it entered Egyptian air space, have not been located.

An Egyptian forensic official said 23 bags of body parts have been collected since Sunday, the largest of them no bigger than the palm of a hand. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said their size suggested there had been an explosion although no trace of explosives had been detected.

But Hisham Abdelhamid, head of Egypt’s forensics authority, said that assessment was “mere assumptions” and that it was too early to draw conclusions.

At least two other sources with direct knowledge of the investigation also said it would be premature to say what caused EgyptAir flight 804 to plunge into the sea.

French investigators say the plane sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board as well as other possible computer faults shortly before it disappeared.

The signals did not indicate what may have caused the smoke, and aviation experts have said that neither deliberate sabotage nor a technical fault could be ruled out.

Investigators rely on debris, bags and clothes as well as chemical analysis to detect the imprints of an explosion, according to people involved in two previous probes where deliberate blasts were involved.

An Egyptian team formed by the Civil Aviation Ministry is conducting the technical investigation and three officials from France’s BEA air accident investigation agency have also been in Cairo since Friday, with an expert from Airbus, to assist.

Egypt has deployed a robot submarine and France has sent a search ship to help hunt for the black boxes, but it is not clear whether either of them could detect signals emitted by the flight recorders, lying in waters possibly 3,000 meters deep.

The signal emitters have a battery life of just 30 days.

LAST MOMENTS

Five days after the plane vanished off radar screens, Egyptian and Greek officials — who monitored the flight before it crossed into Egypt’s air space — have given differing accounts of its last moments.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said on Thursday that Greek radar had picked up sharp swings in the jet’s trajectory, 90 degrees left, then 360 degrees right as it plunged from a cruising altitude to 15,000 feet before vanishing from radar.

But Ehab Mohieldin Azmi, head of Egypt’s air navigation services, said Egyptian officials saw no sign of the plane swerving, and it had been visible at 37,000 feet until it disappeared.

“Of course, we tried to call it more than once and it did not respond,” he told Reuters. “We asked the planes that were nearby to give it a relay and we could not reach it. That’s it.”

Egypt’s public prosecutor has asked Greece to hand over transcripts of calls between the pilot and Greek air traffic control, and for the officials to be questioned over whether the pilot sent a distress signal

He also asked France for documents, audio and visual records on the plan during its stopover at Charles de Gaulle airport and until it left French airspace.

At a hotel near Cairo airport where relatives of the victims were giving DNA samples to help identify the body parts recovered so far, grief mixed with frustration.

Amjad Haqi, an Iraqi man whose mother Najla was flying back from medical treatment in France, said the families were being kept in the dark and had not even been formally told that any body parts had been recovered.

“All they are concerned about is to find the black box and the debris of the plane. That’s their problem, not mine,” he said. “And then they come and talk to us about insurance and compensation. I don’t care about compensation, all I care about is to find my mother and bury her.”

(Additional reporting by Haitham Ahmed, Ahmed Tolba and Ahmed Aboulenein in Cairo, Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Dominic Evans, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Russia Blames “External Influence” for Plane Crash in Egypt that Killed 224 People

A senior airline official representing the Russian airline Kogalymavia has blamed Saturday’s Sinai plane crash on an “external influence,” according to CNN. The crash killed all 224 people that were on board.

The official added that planes don’t just fall apart in midair, but that’s exactly what happened to Kogalymavia Flight 9268 before it crashed into a remote area of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The executive did not release details on what he meant by an external influence, but an investigation is underway. Aviation experts on currently looking through the data on the airplane’s “black boxes,” but no results have been shared yet.

BBC News reports that the head of Russia’s Federal Aviation Agency stated that it is too early to know the cause of the crash, despite what the senior airline official has said.

“It is completely premature to speak about the reasons of this, as there are not grounds. And I’d like to call on the aviation community to refrain from any premature conclusions,” Sputnicknews.com quoted Alexander Neradko, the agency chief, who talked to Rossiya-25 television.

CNN aviation analyst Peter Goelz said that because the plane broke into several pieces before hitting the ground, that it helps reduce to the list of possible causes, however, there are still plenty of situations that could have happened.

Here are the only facts that are concrete at this time: the airplane came apart mid air, the plane lost speed and began to descend quickly, and the crew made no attempts to contact any sort of air traffic control to report the situation.

AP reports that Russian Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov stated that the crash site would continue to be searched until all the bodies of the victims were found. Currently, 144 bodies have been sent to St. Petersburg and more are expected to arrive Monday evening.

According to CNN, 217 people on the plane were passengers and 7 were crew members. Of the passengers, 25 were children.

Russian President Putin expressed his condolences to the victim’s families.

“This is a terrible tragedy and we are most certainly with you at this time with all our hearts and souls,” Putin said.

“I want to thank the people of St. Petersburg for the way they have responded. The whole country has seen this, everyone in Russia, and I want to thank you for your words of sympathy and condolence. In such tragic hours, it is certainly very important to feel the support of those close to you and know you have the entire country’s sympathy over this terrible disaster.”

The United States, Germany, and Britain all issued overflight warnings for the Sinai Peninsula previous to the crash due to extremist violence in the area. Germany issued the warnings on October 5 while America and Britain issued the warnings on October 15.

“It’s A Miracle”: Teen Survives Plane Crash, Walks To Safety

Aviation experts and rescue personnel are calling it a “miracle” that 16-year-old Autumn Veatch not only survived the crash of her grandparent’s plane but was able to walk two days through the Washington wilderness until she found a trailhead and a passing motorist.

“It’s a miracle, no question about it, ” Lt. Col. Jeffrey Lustick of the Civil Air Patrol said Monday. “Moments of joy like this can be hard to find.”

Veatch said that her grandparents were killed in the crash according to a transcript of the 911 call made from a Mazama, Washington store where the motorist took the girl.

“So tell me exactly what happened,” the dispatcher told the girl, according to a transcript of the call posted by CNN.

“I was riding from Kalispell, Montana, to Bellingham, Washington, and … well, I don’t know where, but we crashed and I was the only one that made it out,” Veatch said in a low voice.

“Made it out from the collision?”

“From the plane,” she said.

“Or survived?”

“Yeah, the only one that survived.”

“Are you injured at all?”

“Yeah, I have a lot of burns on my hands, and I’m … kind of covered in bruises and scratches and stuff.”

Officials tried to tell the media they didn’t know the condition of the girl’s grandparents until the transcript was released to CNN.

“Autumn said they flew out of the clouds, and then flew into the side of a mountain. She was able to get out, and she spent the night by a river before hiking to the highway, where she was rescued,” Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said.

“It gets cold up there at night, pretty high elevations, so she survived not only the crash, then going through that. I will just tell you this from all of us here — we are just impressed with her, she’s like a kind of superhero.”

Veatch was being treated for her injuries at Three Rivers Hospital where she was listed in stable condition.  Hospital officials said she was suffering mostly from exposure after spending two days in the wilderness.  Veatch’s father said she was “pretty banged up.”

The hospital added she suffered from rhabdomyolysis, a muscle disorder that was likely caused by an injury from the crash.

Officials are still searching for the crash site.