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EgyptAir Flight 804 Debris Narrows Search for More Clues Unverified Data Points to Rapid Loss of Control Aboard EgyptAir Jet
(about 2 hours later)
CAIRO — Egyptian naval crews scouring the Mediterranean Sea on Friday discovered human remains, debris and some of the personal belongings of the 66 passengers aboard an EgyptAir plane that went down the day before, Greek and Egyptian officials said. CAIRO — In the minutes before an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 66 people on board, there were rapid and escalating failures in the plane’s flight control system, according to sensor data transmitted by the aircraft to operators on the ground that was published Friday by a respected aviation journal.
Though the cause of the crash remained a mystery and the subject of intense speculation, the discovery of the wreckage allowed authorities searching for clues to narrow the focus of their search to about 40 square miles, an airline official said in a statement. As aviation officials sorted through the data, which was posted online by The Aviation Herald, Egyptian naval crews scoured the sea in the area where the airplane was last recorded on radar, and found bits of wreckage bobbing in the waves, incuding an airplane seat, luggage and human remains.
The wreckage was identified in a search area about 180 miles north of Alexandria, Egypt, an Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement. However, no bulk wreckage has yet been spotted and the parts of the aircraft most likely to provide clues for investigators are also the ones most likely to quickly sink to the seafloor. Even after the publication of the technical data, which could not be independently confirmed, and the recovery of parts of the plane in the water, the cause of the crash remained a mystery and the subject of intense speculation.
An Egyptian official has said that investigators consider terrorism to be one theory as to the cause of the plane crash, but no terrorist group has taken responsibility and officials cautioned that there was no direct evidence to suggest that there was a bomb aboard the plane, or any other deliberate act of sabotage. No bulk wreckage has yet been spotted, and the parts of the aircraft most likely to provide clues for investigators are also the ones most likely to have quickly sunk to the sea floor.
EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320 jetliner, disappeared from radar screens early Thursday morning as it was flying over the Mediterranean Sea to Cairo from Paris. Before it vanished, the jet plunged from cruising altitude while swerving violently and flying in a circle, the Greek defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said at a news conference on Thursday. An Egyptian official has said that investigators consider terrorism to be one possible cause of the disaster, but no terrorist group has claimed responsibility. Officials cautioned that there was no direct evidence to suggest a bomb aboard the plane, or any other deliberate act of sabotage.
On Friday, he said that debris had been found floating within the 40-mile search area, telling reporters in Athens that the Egyptian military had confirmed “the discovery of a body part, a seat and baggage just south of where the aircraft signal was lost.” EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320 jetliner, disappeared from radar screens early Thursday morning as it was flying to Cairo from Paris. Before it vanished, the jet apparently plunged from cruising altitude while swerving violently and then flying in a circle, the Greek defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said at a news conference on Thursday.
The Egyptian Army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir, speaking in an interview on Friday, said “there is no doubt” that the debris is from the EgyptAir plane. On Friday, Mr. Kammenos said that debris had been found floating within the 40-square-mile search area. He told reporters in Athens that the Egyptian military had confirmed “the discovery of a body part, a seat and baggage just south of where the aircraft signal was lost.”
The discovery of the remains and wreckage appeared to dash any lingering hopes of finding survivors. Among the dozen or so countries with citizens on the flight, Egypt suffered the greatest loss, with 30 people on board. The tragedy added grief to a sense of disbelief over a recent string of disasters, including the Russian airliner that was brought down shortly after it left the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in October, dealing a crippling blow to the country’s tourism. The Egyptian Army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir, said in an interview on Friday that “there is no doubt” that the debris came from the EgyptAir plane.
The naval vessels that found the debris were part of an international search-and-rescue flotilla. The discovery of the remains and wreckage appeared to dash any lingering hopes of finding survivors. Among the dozen or so countries whose citizens were on the flight, Egypt suffered the greatest loss, with 30 people on board. The tragedy added grief to a sense of disbelief over a recent string of disasters, including the Russian airliner that was brought down shortly after it left the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in October, dealing a crippling blow to the country’s tourism.
The European Space Agency, combing through satellite data, said on Friday that it had spotted a “potential oil slick” about 25 miles southeast of the plane’s last known location. The oil slick appeared to be more than a mile long, the agency said. The Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority has provided what a spokesman called a definitive timeline on the disaster. The agency reported that the flight was proceeding normally at 1:48 a.m. Cairo time on Thursday, when Greek traffic controllers last spoke with the pilot, who seemed in good spirits.
The Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority has provided what a spokesman called a definitive timeline on the disaster. The agency reported that the flight was proceeding normally at 1:48 a.m. Cairo time, when Greek traffic controllers last spoke with the pilot, who seemed in good spirits. At 2:27 a.m., when the plane was passing from Greek to Egyptian-supervised airspace, the controllers in Athens tried and failed repeatedly to reach the pilots by radio. Even attempts on an emergency frequency failed.
At 2:27 a.m., the controllers in Athens tried and failed repeatedly to reach the plane, to pass control and communications to Cairo as the plane approached Egyptian airspace. Even attempts on an emergency frequency failed. At the same time, technical data was being transmitted from the plane automatically through an automatic system aboard the plane called the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or Acars. Modern jetliners use to provide status updates to maintenance and operational centers on the ground.
At 2:29 a.m., the plane left Greek airspace, and at 2:29:40 a.m., Greek controllers lost the aircraft’s trace, just inside Egyptian airspace, about halfway between Crete and Egypt. Representatives of Airbus and the Federal Aviation Administration said they could not confirm the authenticity of the technical signals. Dina El-Fouly, a spokeswoman for EgyptAir, declined to comment on the apparently leaked data. “We cannot say anything, because we have already launched a committee to investigate the crash,” she said. “It hasn’t told us anything until now.”
“If that is correct, then it has landed on a feature we call the Mediterranean Ridge,” said William B.F. Ryan, a scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who has studied the Mediterranean Sea floor. The data, first reported on AVHerald.com, is written tersely in abbreviations and codes. Robert W. Mann, a former commercial airline pilot and an industry analyst, said the jargon in the messages told a compelling, albeit incomplete, story.
The water there is about 1.5 miles deep and the Mediterranean Ridge is pushed upward by the African plate that slides under the Aegean Sea, deforming and crumbling the seafloor. “You get a complex play of echoes that was nicknamed cobblestone, showing the seafloor is very bumpy” Dr. Ryan said. At 2:26 a.m., a message indicated that the right cockpit window has been opened. This could have been done to vent smoke, Mr. Mann said, or something else could have cause the breach.
Picking out wreckage from among the bumps, perhaps 50 to 100 feet in size, could be somewhat complex, he said. But if the plane’s black boxes are sending out ultrasonic locator signals, they should be able to be located. Over the next two minutes, there were two smoke indications, one in a bathroom and another in the avionics bay, the part of the plane where much of its electronic equipment is housed.
It may take time to organize the search and recovery of the wreckage, however, deploying specialized robots, sophisticated sonar and deepwater equipment. Mr. Mann cautioned that these messages did not necessarily mean that there was a fire. The messages could also have been triggered by rapid decompression of the aircraft, which can produce condensation that the plane’s sensors could mistake for smoke.
“The club of organizations that have the capability to work efficiently at that depth is fairly small,” said David Gallo, a scientist who helped lead the search in 2009 for debris from Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the South Atlantic while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing 228 aboard. It took two years before the black boxes from that flight were finally recovered. Finally at 2:29, there were two more alerts having to do with the plane’s flight control computer systems.
Egypt was joined Friday in the sea and air search effort by teams from Britain, Cyprus, France, Greece and Italy. In addition, French and British investigators and one expert from Airbus, the plane’s manufacturer, joined a team of Egyptian investigators to inspect the airplane parts as they were discovered. Through that painstaking effort, and the recovery of the plane’s flight data recorders, they hope to determine whether the crash was because of an act of terrorism, or mechanical or human failure. “The last two are troubling,” Mr. Mann said. “You are starting to really see things rapidly degrade.”
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt expressed his condolences to the families of victims on Friday. Mr. Sisi, “with utmost sadness and regret, mourns the victims on board the EgyptAir flight who were killed,” his office said in a statement. First, there was a problem with the autoflight control computer. The jet would have been flying near its maximum speed and elevation at that time. That is the most efficient way for jetliners to fly, and it is completely safe, Mr. Mann said, but pilots prefer to rely on autopilot systems in those conditions because if they were to ever lose control of the plane, it could be hard to regain. That is why pilots sometimes call those conditions the “coffin corner,” he said.
The last message had to do with the spoiler elevator controller, which essentially controls the flaps responsible for controlling the pitch and roll of the airplane. A computer controlling the flaps failed as well.
“It looks to me like you have a progressive flight control system failure,” Mr. Mann said. It appeared to take place over the course of two minutes, which might seem like an eternity on that plane, but is relatively fast.
This was also the moment that the plane left Greek airspace, and at 2:29:40 a.m., Greek controllers lost sight of the aircraft on radar. It was just inside Egyptian airspace, about halfway between Crete and Egypt.
“If that is correct, then it has landed on a feature we call the Mediterranean Ridge,” said William B.F. Ryan, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University who has studied the Mediterranean Sea floor.
The ridge has been pushed upward by the African plate of the earth’s crust sliding under the Aegean Sea, deforming and crumbling the sea floor, Dr. Ryan said. “You get a complex play of echoes that was nicknamed cobblestone, showing the sea floor is very bumpy,” he said.
The water there is about 1.5 miles deep, and picking out wreckage at the bottom from among the bumps, which are perhaps 50 to 100 feet in size, could be somewhat complex, he said. But if the plane’s “black box” flight recorders are sending out ultrasonic locator signals, it should be possible to locate them fairly soon.
Still, it may take time to organize the search and recovery of the wreckage, using specialized robots, sophisticated sonar and deep-water equipment.
“The club of organizations that have the capability to work efficiently at that depth is fairly small,” said David Gallo, a scientist who helped lead the search in 2009 for debris from Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the South Atlantic on a flight to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, killing 228 aboard. It took two years before the black boxes from that flight were finally recovered.
Egypt was joined in the sea and air search effort on Friday by teams from Britain, Cyprus, France, Greece and Italy. In addition, French and British investigators and one expert from Airbus, the plane’s manufacturer, joined a team of Egyptian investigators to inspect the airplane parts as they were discovered. Through that painstaking effort, and the hoped-for recovery of the plane’s flight data recorders, they hope to determine whether the crash was caused by an act of terrorism or sabotage, or by mechanical or human failure.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt expressed his condolences on Friday to the families of victims. Mr. Sisi, “with utmost sadness and regret, mourns the victims on board the EgyptAir flight who were killed,” his office said in a statement.
As the debris was found, more details began to emerge about the passengers on the flight. The British news media reported that the only Briton on the plane was Richard Osman, 40, a father of two whose young daughter was born less than a month ago.As the debris was found, more details began to emerge about the passengers on the flight. The British news media reported that the only Briton on the plane was Richard Osman, 40, a father of two whose young daughter was born less than a month ago.
Alastair Osman told ITV News that his brother, described as a workaholic and fitness enthusiast, grew up in Wales and worked in the gold-mining industry. The son of an Egyptian doctor, he lived with his French-born wife in Jersey, an island in the English Channel.Alastair Osman told ITV News that his brother, described as a workaholic and fitness enthusiast, grew up in Wales and worked in the gold-mining industry. The son of an Egyptian doctor, he lived with his French-born wife in Jersey, an island in the English Channel.
Osman Abu Laban, a Lebanese film director who lives in Egypt, lost four members of his extended family in the crash. In a post on his Facebook page, Mr. Abu Laban announced funeral prayers on Friday afternoon at a Cairo mosque for his aunt and uncle, their son and the son’s wife.Osman Abu Laban, a Lebanese film director who lives in Egypt, lost four members of his extended family in the crash. In a post on his Facebook page, Mr. Abu Laban announced funeral prayers on Friday afternoon at a Cairo mosque for his aunt and uncle, their son and the son’s wife.
“Oh God, be merciful to them, forgive them and make their abode the highest heaven,” Mr. Abu Laban wrote.“Oh God, be merciful to them, forgive them and make their abode the highest heaven,” Mr. Abu Laban wrote.