Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

MS804 Crash.. Egypt Denies French Claims


Thu 04 Apr 2019 | 10:39 AM
Nawal Sayed

By Nawal Sayed

CAIRO, April 4 (SEE) – Egypt denied French reports claiming that the MS804 flight crash was a result of a lack of maintenance and the plane should never have taken off, according to a statement by the Civil Aviation Ministry issued Wednesday.

The Egyptian statement was a response to a French report about reasons behind the 2016 crash of a Paris-Cairo EgyptAir flight that killed 66 people on board.

Twelve of those killed in the May 2016 crash were French nationals.

[caption id="attachment_43741" align="aligncenter" width="800"]People light candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804, at the Cairo Opera house in Cairo, Egypt May 26, 2016- Reuters People light candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804, at the Cairo Opera house in Cairo, Egypt May 26, 2016- Reuters[/caption]

“With regard to what was published on several news websites, concerning the MS804 flight incident, Egypt’s Ministry of Civil of Aviation states that there is no technical information released regarding the incident,” the statement read.

The Aviation ministry stresses that the whole file of investigation has been transferred to the General Prosecution, which is now the only authority in charge of the investigation in this respect.

France’s Reports on MS804 Flight

According to the French report that Le Parisien newspaper initially published, the findings confirmed the BEA's analysis of a major mechanical fault.

Earlier, Egyptian authorities suggested that a bomb may have been the crash's cause, but later the French BEA air accident investigation agency said the crash was probably caused by a cockpit fire.

Crash EgyptAir : l'analyse des corps relance la thèse de l'explosion

"The expertise shows that this aircraft should have been checked during the previous four flights made by the MS804 plane and should not have left Cairo after the recurring defects, but it was not reported by successive crews," they said.

The experts also expressed doubts about the skills of the Egyptian technician who gave the green light for take-off in Paris.