- "A terrorist act had not been completely excluded...
The Egyptian pilot did not send a distress call. French aviation experts
said that this might mean the aircraft was disabled by a small explosion
on board..."
-
- PARIS -- France was plunged
into deep mourning yesterday when a Paris-bound holiday charter plane crashed
into the Red Sea killing 148 people, mostly French tourists, including
scores of children.
-
- The victims were said to include several families from
the Paris area, including an entire family of seven.
-
- French air accident experts were flying to Egypt last
night to try to discover why the Boeing 737-300, owned by an Egyptian charter
company, crashed into deep water minutes after take-off from Sharm el Sheikh
airport. A terrorist act had not been completely excluded but French and
Egyptian officials said that the initial evidence pointed to an accident.
A French frigate was ordered to the area to search for the flight recorders.
-
- Dominique Bussereau, the French deputy transport minister,
said the Flash Airlines Boeing 737, carrying tourists from a Christmas
and New Year break at hotels on the Red Sea coast, suffered a "problem
at take-off". "It tried to turn back and it was when trying to
do so that it crashed," he said. Eye-witnesses said the plane was
flying low over the water. It was intact as it hit the sea at a shallow
angle and broke up on impact.
-
- Egypt's civil aviation minister said that the causes
of the crash were "entirely technical" and there was no sign
of terrorism. The Egyptian pilot did not send a distress call. French aviation
experts said that this might mean the aircraft was disabled by a small
explosion on board but it could equally mean the pilot was struggling with
the controls and had no time to send a signal. The victims were said to
include at least 127 French tourists, eight other holidaymakers resident
in France and 13 Egyptian and Moroccan crew members, including a relief
crew that was due to take over after a stop in Cairo.
-
- At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris the first intimation
of catastrophe was a flashing light on the arrivals board, illuminating
the word retardÈ (delayed) beside flight number FSH604. Soon after
9am Paris time, when the flight from Sharm el Sheikh was due to touch down,
there was a public address announcement at Terminal Three, reserved for
charter and cut-price airlines. "Would anyone meeting passengers from
flight FSH604 gather under the AÈroports de Paris sign at the back
of the building?"
-
- Police and airport officials passed on the terrible news.
A young woman burst into tears and ran away. A friend tried to restrain
her but then gave up. A woman in her 50s buried her face in her husband's
chest. Others stood frozen in shock, until they were helped into a bus
that took them to a crisis centre at the Ibis hotel.
-
- The French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, at the
centre to give his condolences to relatives, said: "The entire nation
has been wounded by this calamity ... We do not know the precise causes
of the crash but we know its cruelty. It is an overwhelming, revolting
tragedy, which has engulfed people who were simple seeking a little rest."
-
- Many of the passengers on board the Flash Airlines Boeing
737 were couples or young families who had booked with the FRAM tour company.
The head of medical services at Charles de Gaulle airport, Dr Michel Clerel,
said: "The relatives are in shock. You have to imagine they were waiting
for family members to come back from a holiday, then it was brutally announced
to them that they had died."
-
- Asked whether there were many children on board he said:
"Yes, many. They were spending their holidays with their families."
-
- The French Justice Ministry ordered a judicial investigation
for "manslaughter" the usual procedure in France when accidental
death is suspected.
-
- French officials said the investigation was a "formality"
to provide a legal basis for French participation in the accident investigation.
The inquiry was entrusted to the office of the public prosecutor in Bobigny,
Jean-Paul Simonnot, whose jurisdiction includes Charles de Gaulle. An international
investigation warrant was issued by an examining magistrate yesterday afternoon,
allowing French air accident experts to travel to Egypt last night and
today.
-
- He said: "At present, there is no reason to exclude
the possibility of an accident ... The aircraft plunged into the sea just
after take-off. The wreckage is at the bottom of the sea.
-
- "Recovery of bodies will be very difficult."
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=477909
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