Article

2018-07-08 Africa North

It’s semi-official: Fire likely cause of 2016 EgyptAir crash, French investigators say

[IsraelTimes] Information acquired from flight recorders suggests blaze broke out and spread rapidly, 'causing the loss of control of the aircraft'; officials suspect phone or tablet to blame

French Sherlocks said Friday a cockpit fire likely caused the 2016 EgyptAir MS804 crash that claimed the lives of 66 passengers and crew, contradicting Egyptian authorities who said explosives traces were found on the victims’ remains.

La Belle France’s civil aviation accident bureau, known by its French acronym BEA, said that information gleaned from the flight recorders suggested that "a fire broke out in the cockpit while the plane was at cruising altitude and the fire spread rapidly, causing the loss of control of the aircraft."

The Airbus A320 was flying from Gay Paree to Cairo on May 19, 2016 when it crashed into the southeastern Mediterranean, killing 66 people, including 40 Egyptians and 15 French citizens.

The original reports of the event can be seen here, here, and here. At the time we were convinced it was a successful jihadi attack, quite probqbly Ansar Bayt al Maqdis/ISIS in the Sinai.

French Sherlocks had always leaned towards a mechanical fault as the cause of the crash, saying they suspected that a mobile phone or tablet had caught fire.

An official Egyptian investigation suggested the plane had been bombed, claiming traces of explosives had been found on the victims’ remains. But a source close to the French investigation previously said no such traces were found by the team.

The BEA said the crew could be heard discussing a fire on the cockpit voice recorder and that the plane’s automatic ACARS messaging system had flagged up smoke on board.

It said it was waiting for Egypt to publish its final report into the crash to understand how the two countries arrived at a different conclusion.

Posted by trailing wife 2018-07-08 00:04|| || Front Page|| [11136 views ] Top

#1 ???

I have a hard time believing they would make a cockpit out of combustible materials, but maybe they did.

Posted by gorb 2018-07-08 02:21|| 2018-07-08 02:21|| Front Page Top

#2 You can now fit terabytes on data on a card the size of a stamp...

The whole plane could record the whole flight with video on the cockpit and a few other cameras and still have room for everthing else.

It could even livestream most of it up to satellites so there's no need to look for the blackbox.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2018-07-08 08:20|| 2018-07-08 08:20|| Front Page Top

#3 the flammability, smoke, and toxicity limits are different in the non pax areas, Gorb, but not that much. cockpit crew have full face masks available for a smoke/decompression event. qucik-donning, even w/ glasses so any fire may have come from electronics, either installed equipment or cary on (phone/laptop)

Posted by USN, Ret. 2018-07-08 09:38|| 2018-07-08 09:38|| Front Page Top

#4 Heard a story about a guy flying a turboprop cargo hauler in Africa (that frequently carry passengers as cargo) where the pilot smelled smoke and found that the riders had tore up a packing crate and built a fire on the cargo deck to cook the chicken they had brought along. Lunch, you know.

Posted by ed in texas 2018-07-08 11:27|| 2018-07-08 11:27|| Front Page Top

#5 Fire caused the crash?
What caused the fire?

Posted by Skidmark 2018-07-08 11:29|| 2018-07-08 11:29|| Front Page Top

and built a fire on the cargo deck to cook the chicken they had brought along. Lunch, you know.

Allied student hibachi grills, top floor Olson Hall, Fort Benning 1972. Big smoke, good smell.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-07-08 11:34|| 2018-07-08 11:34|| Front Page Top

#7 ed, was this the story?
http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2016/03/umm-what.html

Posted by james 2018-07-08 23:05|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com 2018-07-08 23:05|| Front Page Top

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