| Cherry-picked for the new news. |
TERRORISTS were last night feared to have overpowered crew in an EgyptAir jet cockpit, causing it to crash into the sea killing all 66 people on board.
Flight MS804 from Paris was about to start its descent into Cairo from 37,000ft when it made “sudden swerves”. A life-or-death struggle between hijackers and the crew as the plane plummeted from the sky was emerging as the most likely cause.
The Airbus A320’s black box flight recorder now holds the key to revealing what happened early yesterday. Technical faults have not been ruled out but an IS terrorist bomb smuggled on board is high on the list of theories.
| Surely there would be no struggle if a bomb went off, unless the bomb involved were one of those finicky, hard to light shoe or pantibombs. |
The doomed flight was the jet’s fifth of the day. It started in Eritrea — where airport security is a “joke”, according to UK intelligence sources. It also visited Tunisia, which has been rocked by recent terror attacks.
| Remind me not to fly EgyptAir; I don't know where their planes have been... |
The plane left Charles De Gaulle Airport at 22.09 on Wednesday and crashed into the Mediterranean sea off the Greek island of Warpaths.
Aviation officials in Greece said the pilot was in a “good mood” when air traffic controllers spoke to him as the jet entered their airspace. They tried to contact him again at 01.27, as the plane was set to enter Egyptian airspace, but got no response despite repeated calls. Two minutes later it vanished from radar.
Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos said: “The plane carried out a 90-degree turn to the left and a 360-degree turn to the right, falling from 37,000ft to 15,000ft and the signal was lost at around 10,000ft.”
Officials said no warning was given by the pilot but an automatic distress signal was transmitted at 03.26. This is likely to have been sent by an emergency beacon after impact and not by the plane’s crew, an Egyptian source added. |