Tue, Mar 28, 2006
NTSB Opens Public Docket On 2004 Loss Of B737
French and Egyptian investigators sharply disagree on what
caused a Flash Air Boeing 737 to crash into the Red
Sea after taking off from Cairo more than two years
ago. The two sides published both of their opinions in
a 1,300-page report on the crash issued on Saturday.
Both French and Egyptian teams say the captain of that flight
was disoriented when he lost control of the aircraft as it departed
the Egyptian seaside resort town of Sharm el-Shek. Both sides also
agree that, seconds after take-off, there was a malfunction of some
sort in the plane's autopilot. Where French and Egyptian
investigators differ, however, is over whether the pilot was to
blame... or technical problems for which the crew had not been
trained and for which the manuals provide no information.
The Egyptian team says four factors could have contributed to
the crash -- a problem with the 737's ailerons, a control
malfunction in the left spoiler, some kind of wing problem related
to lift, and a problem with the autopilot. French investigators
maintain the aircraft was flyable at all times... and suggest the
Egyptian pilot of the 737 should have been able to cope with
whatever forced him to take control from the autopilot just seconds
into the flight.
The National Transportation Safety
Board, which also participated in the investigation as the entity
of the country that manufactured the airliner, opened the public
docket on the accident investigation Monday.
The crash killed all 148 people on board... most of them French
tourists on their way home to Paris from a seaside holiday.
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