Egyptair MS804 crash: French investigators rule out terrorist attack

Last year SU-GCC, an Egyptair Airbus A320-232 crashed into the eastern Mediterranean Sea. This week French investigators have ruled out the theory that suggests that a bomb was used to blast the aircraft out of the sky.

The French investigators said there were no traces of explosives found on the remains of the French victims: “No traces of powder were found, so there were no explosive charges on board the aircraft”, the source said.

The cause behind the disappearance of EgyptAir Flight 804 is more likely to be terrorism than a technical issue, Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi said shortly after the accident, Egypt has always claimed that an explosion caused the Airbus A320 to crash into the Mediterranean Sea, between Crete and the coast of Northern Egypt.

The theory by the French investigators is a mechanical fault that caused the crash, most likely a fire broke out in or near the cockpit. The combustion or the self-combustion of a tablet in the cockpit is the current hypothesis, further investigation on debris or flight recorders need to prove the theory, but the debris and the flight data recorders are located in Egypt where they don’t show a great willingness to collaborate.

There were 7 crew, 3 Egyptian security officers and 56 passengers on board (30 Egyptians, 15 French, 2 Iraqis, 1 Briton, 1 Belgian, 1 Sudanese, 1 Chadian, 1 Portuguese, 1 Algerian, 1 Canadian, 1 Saudi and 1 Kuwaiti).

The plane was flying at 37000 feet but suddenly made some abrupt turns before rapidly losing altitude and plunging into the sea.