EgyptAir Flight 804
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EgyptAir Flight 804 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...
to
Cairo International Airport Cairo International Airport (; ''Maṭār El Qāhira El Dawly'') is the principal international airport of Cairo and the largest and busiest airport in Egypt. It serves as the primary hub for Egyptair and Nile Air as well as several other ...
, operated by
EgyptAir Egyptair (Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-A ...
. On 19 May 2016 at 02:33
Egypt Standard Time Egypt Standard Time (EGY) ( ''Tawqīt Miṣr al-qiyāsiyy'') is UTC+02:00, which is equivalent to Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time and Central European Summer Time, and is co-linear with neighbouring Li ...
(
UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...
), the Airbus A320 crashed into the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
, killing all 56 passengers, 3 security personnel, and 7 crew members on board. No mayday call was received by
air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...
, although signals that smoke had been detected in one of the aircraft's lavatories and in the
avionics Avionics (a blend word, blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, ...
bay were automatically transmitted via
ACARS In aviation, ACARS (; an acronym for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) is a digital datalink system for transmission of short messages between aircraft and ground stations via airband radio or satellite. The protocol was des ...
shortly before the aircraft disappeared from radar. The last communications from the aircraft prior to its submersion were two transmissions from its emergency locator transmitter that were received by the
International Cospas-Sarsat Programme The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme is a satellite-aided search and rescue (SAR) initiative. It is organized as a treaty-based, nonprofit, intergovernmental, humanitarian cooperative of 45 nations and agencies (see infobox). It is dedi ...
. Debris from the aircraft was found in the Mediterranean Sea approximately north of
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
. Nearly four weeks after the crash, several main sections of wreckage were identified on the seabed, and both
flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
s were recovered in a multinational search and recovery operation. On 29 June, Egyptian officials announced that the flight data recorder data indicated smoke in the aircraft, and that soot plus damage from high temperatures was found on some of the wreckage from the front section of the aircraft. In August 2016, French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized the fact that no further explanation for the reasons behind the crash had been given. In December 2016, Egyptian officials said traces of explosives were found on the bodies but in May 2017, French officials denied that. On 6 July 2018, France's BEA stated that the most likely hypothesis was a fire in the cockpit that spread rapidly. A manslaughter investigation was started in France in June 2016; in April 2019 a report commissioned as part of the investigation stated the aircraft was not airworthy and should have never taken-off: recurring defects had not been reported by the crews, including alerts reporting potential fire hazards. In April 2022 it was reported that the fire was caused by one of the pilots smoking a cigarette, which burned out of control when exposed to oxygen leaking from a cockpit oxygen mask.


Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an
Airbus A320-232 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...
, registration SU-GCC,
MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...
2088. It made its first flight on 25 July 2003, and was delivered to EgyptAir on 3 November 2003. The aircraft was powered by two
IAE V2527-A5 The IAE V2500 is a two-shaft high-bypass turbofan engine built by International Aero Engines (IAE) which powers the Airbus A320 family, the McDonnell Douglas MD-90, and the Embraer C-390 Millennium. The engine's name is a combination of the Roma ...
engines. The flight was the aircraft's fifth that day, having flown from
Asmara International Airport Asmara International Airport, , is the international airport of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. It is the country's largest airport and, as of 2017, the only one receiving regularly scheduled services. History The airport was constructed by th ...
,
Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
, to
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
; then from Cairo to Tunis–Carthage International Airport,
Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
, and back. The last completed flight of the aircraft, before its ultimate crash, was Flight 803 to
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...
.


Flight

The aircraft departed for
Cairo International Airport Cairo International Airport (; ''Maṭār El Qāhira El Dawly'') is the principal international airport of Cairo and the largest and busiest airport in Egypt. It serves as the primary hub for Egyptair and Nile Air as well as several other ...
from
Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...
on 18 May 2016 at 23:09 (all times refer to UTC+2, used in France and Egypt at the time). It disappeared from radar while flying at
flight level In aviation and aviation meteorology, a flight level (FL) is an aircraft's altitude at standard air pressure, expressed in hundreds of feet. The air pressure is computed assuming an International Standard Atmosphere pressure of 1013.25 hPa ...
370 (about in
altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
) in clear weather, north of the Egyptian coast, and about the same distance from
Kastellorizo Kastellorizo or Castellorizo (; el, Καστελλόριζο, Kastellórizo), officially Megisti ( ''Megísti''), is a Greece, Greek island and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean ...
, over the
eastern Mediterranean Eastern Mediterranean is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to communi ...
on 19 May at 02:30. The aircraft crashed into the sea around 2:33, when the last ACARS message was sent. The flight had lasted 3 hours 25 minutes. The aircraft was due to land at 03:05. It was originally reported that a distress signal from emergency devices was detected by the Egyptian military at 04:26, two hours after the last radar contact; officials later retracted this statement. On the day of the crash Panos Kammenos, the Greek defence minister, noted the aircraft changed
heading Heading can refer to: * Heading (metalworking), a process which incorporates the extruding and upsetting processes * Headline, text at the top of a newspaper article * Heading (navigation), the direction a person or vehicle is facing, usually si ...
90 degrees to the left, then turned 360 degrees to the right while it dropped from Flight Level 370 to . This information was rejected on 23 May by an Egyptian official from the National Air Navigation Services Company, who stated that there was no change in altitude and no unusual movement before the aircraft disappeared from radar. It is possible that Egyptian radars were unable to track the aircraft as accurately as Greek radars due to their distance from the aircraft. On 14 June, Egyptian authorities confirmed the statements made by Greek officials. According to a former investigator, the initial left turn could have exceeded computer-controlled flight protections, and might also have come close to or exceeded the structural design limits of the aircraft.


Passengers and crew

The 66 passengers and crew all died. They collectively held citizenship in 13 different countries. Fifty-six passengers from twelve different countries were on board. Three passengers were reported to be children, including two infants. Some of the passengers held
multiple citizenship Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on t ...
. The crew of ten consisted of two pilots, five flight attendants, and three security personnel. According to EgyptAir,
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Mohammed Shoqeir had 6,275 hours of flying experience, including 2,101 hours on the A320, while first officer Mohamed Assem had 2,766 hours.


Search and recovery efforts


Initial efforts

The Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry confirmed that search and rescue teams were deployed to look for the missing aircraft. Search efforts were carried out in coordination with Greek authorities. A spokesman for the Egyptian Civil Aviation Agency stated that the aircraft most likely crashed into the sea. Greece and France sent aircraft and naval ships to the area to participate in search and rescue efforts. The United Kingdom sent a naval ship, while the United States sent a naval aircraft.


Search area

On 20 May, units of the
Egyptian Navy The Egyptian Navy ( ar, القوات البحرية المصرية, El-Quwwāt el-Bahareya el-Miṣriyya, Egyptian Navy Forces), also known as the Egyptian Naval Force, is the maritime branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces. It is the largest navy ...
and
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...
discovered debris, body parts, passengers' belongings, luggage, and aircraft seats at the crash site, off the coast of
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, Egypt. Two fields of debris were spotted from the air between 20 May at dusk and 23 May at dawn; one of them was in radius. At this time, the searched area measured nearly , with the sea being 2,440 to 3,050 metres (8,000 to 10,000 ft) deep there. The
European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
(ESA) announced on 20 May that it had possibly detected a fuel slick at , about southeast of the last known location of Flight 804, on imagery captured by its Sentinel-1A satellite at 16:00 UTC on 19 May. On 26 May, it was reported that signals from the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter had been detected by satellite, which narrowed the area where the main wreckage was likely to be located on the seabed to within a radius of . An emergency locator transmitter usually activates at impact to send a radio distress signal; this is not the signal from an
underwater locator beacon An underwater locator beacon is a device that guides search and rescue teams to a submerged aircraft by emitting a repeated electronic pulse. Application An underwater locator beacon (ULB) or underwater acoustic beacon, is a device fitted to a ...
(ULB) attached to a
flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
, which is an ultrasonic pulse. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that the emergency locator transmitter signal was received by satellites minutes after the airliner disappeared from radar. A "distress signal" received two hours after the disappearance of the aircraft, possibly originating from the emergency locator transmitter, had been reported already on 19 May; this report was denied by EgyptAir. At the beginning of June, after ultrasonic pulses from a ULB of one of the flight recorders had been detected, a "priority search area" in radius was established. The ''John Lethbridge'', a vessel belonging to Deep Ocean Search, equipped with a remotely operated underwater vehicle that can detect signals in depths of up to , and map the seabed, was contracted by Egyptian authorities. Capable of retrieving the flight recorders from the seabed, it left the
Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...
on 28 May and, at that time, it was expected to arrive at the search area around 9 June, after stopping in the Egyptian Port of Alexandria to board Egyptian and French investigators. The vessel was delayed, arriving in Alexandria on 9 June and at the search area some time on or before 13 June. On 15 June, Egyptian authorities announced that searchers on board the ''John Lethbridge'' had identified several main sections of wreckage on the seabed. On 9 July, the Egyptian government reported it was extending the ''John Lethbridge''s stay at the crash site, to 18 July. The ''John Lethbridge'' concluded its mission to recover human remains and returned to the port of Alexandria on 16 July. On arrival, the recovered remains were transferred from the ''John Lethbridge'' to Egypt's Department of Forensic Medicine in Cairo for DNA analysis and processing.


Flight recorders

On 22 May, an Egyptian
remotely operated underwater vehicle A remotely operated underwater vehicle (technically ROUV or just ROV) is a tethered underwater mobile device, commonly called ''underwater robot''. Definition This meaning is different from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the ai ...
(ROV), owned by the country's Oil Ministry, was deployed to join the search for the missing aircraft. President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
stated that the ROV can operate at a depth of . According to Egypt's chief investigator with the Civil Aviation Ministry, Ayman al-Moqadem, the ROV cannot detect signals from flight recorders. A
French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
''D'Estienne d'Orves''-class aviso ship, the ''Enseigne de vaisseau Jacoubet'', equipped with sonar able to detect the underwater "pings" emitted by the ULBs of the flight recorders, arrived at the possible crash site on 23 May. The French ship can deploy an ROV that can dive up to and that is able to detect signals from ULBs but with limited depth range. On 26 May, Italian and French companies capable of executing deep-sea searches, including ALSEAMAR and the
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
-based Deep Ocean Search, were asked by Egypt to help locate the flight recorders. A more specialized French Navy ship, the oceanographic research ship ''Laplace'', left the
Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
n port of
Porto-Vecchio Porto-Vecchio (, ; it, Porto Vecchio or ; co, Portivechju or ) is a commune in the French department of Corse-du-Sud, on the island of Corsica. Porto-Vecchio is a medium-sized port city placed on a good harbor, the southernmost of the mars ...
for the search area on 27 May, according to French aircraft accident investigation body the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA). The vessel can deploy three towed Alseamar hydrophone arrays that are designed to detect a ULB from a distance of up to nearly . On 1 June, the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry reported that "pings" from a ULB of one of the flight recorders had been detected by the ''Laplace''. This was confirmed by the BEA whose spokesperson announced the establishment of a "priority search area". The survey ship ''John Lethbridge'' was at the search area by 13 June. The ULBs, which were activated on 19 May, are designed to last for at least 30 days; the Egyptian board of inquiry said the signals would continue until 24 June. On 16 June, Egyptian authorities announced that the searchers on the ''John Lethbridge'' had found the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), damaged, at a depth of . The memory unit was retrieved intact and sent to Cairo for investigation, following the transfer of the CVR to Egyptian civil aviation officials in Alexandria. The next day it was announced that the ''John Lethbridge'' had been used to retrieve, in several pieces, the second flight recorder—the flight data recorder (FDR). The memory unit was recovered from the damaged flight data recorder but an Egyptian official stated that the flight recorders require extensive repair before they could be properly analyzed and accessed. On 19 June, Egypt's Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee announced that they, with the assistance of the Egyptian Armed Forces, had completed the drying procedure of the intact memory modules and started electrical testing of the memory modules from both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. On 21 June, officials involved in the investigation disclosed that the memory chips from both recorders were damaged. After the initial attempts to download data from both recorders failed, the Egyptian investigative committee announced on 23 June that both recorders would be sent to France's BEA to have salt deposits from the memory chips removed; the recorders would then be returned to Egypt for analysis. On 27 June, the BEA announced that the FDR had been repaired and sent back to Cairo for data analysis by civil aviation safety authorities.


Early responses

Initially, the disappearance and crash of Flight 804 was assumed to be linked to terrorism and insurgency in the region. Thus, for instance, the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry stated on 19 May that Flight 804 was probably attacked. Two US officials believed the aircraft was downed by a bomb, and a senior official said that monitoring equipment focused on the area at the time detected evidence of an explosion on board the aircraft; other officials from multiple US agencies said they had seen no evidence of an explosion in satellite imagery and another two intelligence officials stated there is nothing yet to indicate foul play.


Investigation

According to
Greek military The Hellenic Armed Forces ( el, Eλληνικές Ένοπλες Δυνάμεις, Ellinikés Énoples Dynámis) are the military forces of Greece. They consist of the Hellenic Army, the Hellenic Navy, and the Hellenic Air Force. The civilian ...
radar data, Flight 804 veered off course shortly after entering the Egyptian flight information region. At Flight Level 370 (about in
altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
), the aircraft made a 90-degree left turn, followed by a 360-degree right turn, and then began to descend sharply. Radar contact was lost at an altitude of about . This information was later denied on 23 May by an Egyptian official from the National Air Navigation Services Company, who stated there was no change in altitude and no unusual movement before the aircraft disappeared from radar. On 14 June, Egyptian authorities confirmed the statements made by Greek officials. On 19 May, Greece's
Ministry of National Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
reported that it was investigating the report of a merchant ship captain who claimed to have seen a "fire in the sky" south of the island of
Karpathos Karpathos ( el, Κάρπαθος, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part o ...
. Shortly after the disappearance, the French government began to investigate whether there had been a security breach at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Seven messages sent via the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) had been received from the aircraft between 02:26 and 02:29 local time; contact was lost four minutes later at 02:33. The data, confirmed by France's Bureau of Investigations and Analysis, indicates that smoke may have been detected in the front of the airliner—in the front lavatory and the
avionics Avionics (a blend word, blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, ...
bay beneath the cockpit. Smoke detectors of the type installed on the aircraft can also be triggered by the condensation of water vapour, producing fog, in the event of a sudden loss of pressure inside the cabin. The aircraft's
optical smoke detector A smoke detector is a device that senses smoke, typically as an indicator of fire. Smoke detectors are usually housed in plastic enclosures, typically shaped like a disk about in diameter and thick, but shape and size vary. Smoke can be detecte ...
s have been deemed more reliable than older models on Airbus aircraft, as they produced fewer false warnings, but were sensitive to dust and some aerosols. The three windows mentioned in the data are cockpit windows, on the co-pilot's side. The flight control unit (FCU) is a cockpit-fitted unit that the pilot uses to enter instructions into the two flight management guidance computers (FMGC); an FCU 2 fault indicates a loss of connection between the FCU and FMGC number 2. The spoiler elevator computer number 3 (SEC 3) is one of the three computers that controls the spoilers and
elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
actuators. Two pilots—one interviewed by ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'', the other writing for ''
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
''—interpreted the data as possible evidence of a bomb. At 02:36, seven minutes after the last ACARS message and the last ADS-B transmission, two transmissions from the aircraft's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) were received by the international Cospas-Sarsat system. These transmissions indicated that they were initiated in "test" mode, suggesting either an unusual manipulation of the cockpit ELT switch, or an electrical fault in the switch's circuit. The transmissions were received by Cospas-Sarsat's then-experimental MEOSAR system, and subsequent data collection and analyses by the Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat and engineers at France's
Centre national d'études spatiales The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is und ...
(CNES) were successfully used to calculate the likely point of impact of the flight in the Mediterranean Sea. Aviation expert David Learmount of ''
Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...
'' suggested that an electrical fire could have started in the aircraft's avionics compartment and that the aircrew may have been too distracted to communicate their distress to air traffic control. On 22 May, the French television station M6 reported that, contrary to official statements, one of the pilots told
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
air traffic control about smoke in the cabin, and decided to make an emergency descent. Later that day, the report was dismissed as false by the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry. On 24 May, a forensics official from Egypt's investigative team said that the remains of the victims indicated an explosion on board. The head of forensics denied the claim. At the beginning of June, France 3 and ''
Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH. Histor ...
'' reported that the aircraft had performed three emergency landings in the hours before the crash—at
Asmara Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...
,
Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...
, and Cairo—followed by technical inspections, after ACARS messages "signalled anomalies on board shortly after takeoff from three airports". On 2 June, Safwat Musallam, EgyptAir's chairman, denied the report. With investigations into the crash ongoing, Egyptian officials announced on 29 June that data recovered from the flight data recorder, as well as recovered wreckage from the plane, indicated that smoke had occurred on the aircraft, which matched previous information relayed by the plane's automated systems (ACARS). Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry experts have suggested that wreckage from the front section indicates high temperature combustion. Also, the data showed that the flight data recorder recorded the smoke and fault alarms at the same moment that the aircraft's ACARS relayed messages about them to the ground station, and that the data recorder stopped recording at an altitude of above sea level. Media reported that data from the cockpit voice recorder indicated one of the pilots had tried to extinguish the fire in the cockpit before the airplane crashed. However, after these reports were released, the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority urged "media to be cautious while issuing press releases about the accident and to only rely on official reports issued by the committee itself." Later, on 16 July, the committee confirmed that the cockpit voice recording mentioned "the existence of a fire". On 22 July, investigators privately suggested that the aircraft might have broken up in mid-air. On 17 September 2016, Reuters relayed a 16 September report from the French news outlet ''
Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
'' that French forensic investigators visiting Cairo noted traces of the explosive TNT on the aircraft debris. According to ''Le Figaros source, Egypt proposed a joint report with France announcing the discovery of evidence of an explosive, but France declined, alleging that Egyptian judicial authorities did not allow the French investigators "to carry out an adequate inspection to determine how the traces could have got there". On 15 December 2016 Egyptian investigators announced that traces of explosives had been found on the victims; a source close to the French investigation expressed doubts about these findings. On 13 January 2017, French newspaper ''
Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH. Histor ...
'' published an article claiming that unspecified "French authorities" believed the aircraft might have been brought down by a cockpit fire caused by an overheating phone battery; it noted parallels between the position where the co-pilot had stowed his
iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
and iPhone 6S and data that suggested an accidental fire on the right-hand side of the flight deck, next to the co-pilot. On 7 May 2017, French officials stated that no traces of explosives had been found on the bodies of the victims. On 6 July 2018, France's BEA stated that the most likely hypothesis was a fire in the cockpit that spread rapidly. In April 2022, a report from the investigation stated that the fire was caused by a cigarette in the cockpit which burned out of control when exposed to oxygen emitted from an oxygen mask, which was improperly set to an emergency setting; smoking in the cockpit was not prohibited at that time.


French manslaughter investigation

In June 2016, Paris prosecutor's office indicated that a preliminary investigation into the accident would begin, since no evidence of any act of terrorism had been found; the office had opened a
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...
investigation instead. In April 2019, a report commissioned as part of the French investigation and seen by ''
Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH. Histor ...
'' stated the aircraft was not airworthy. On at least four previous flights recurring defects were not reported by the crews and the aircraft was not checked according to procedure. Some twenty alerts (visual and audible) had been made by the ECAM system the day before the flight, including alerts reporting an electrical problem that could lead to a fire. Pilots instead reset circuit breakers and cleared the messages. More alerts had been noted as far back as 1 May 2016, but were ignored by the airline. The premises of BEA had to be searched under warrant as part of the investigation to obtain these data, and that occurred in October 2018. The BEA claimed that under international aviation law they were not responsible for supplying information to French judicial investigators. While they at first denied having data-recorder data, they later explained that automatic back-ups had retained the data after the original files had been deleted. Crews on the flights preceding the crash told the investigators that they had not encountered any problems during their respective flights. EgyptAir's CEO Ahmed Adel also rejected the French report, citing it as "misleading." Confidential documents released in December 2019 by ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' state that an oxygen leak may be responsible for fire, as well that the sound similar to the high-pressure leak was heard on the CVR before the captain declared a fire, while passengers were moving to the back of the plane.


Aftermath

EgyptAir retired the Flight 804 flight number and replaced it with Flight 802 for inbound flights from
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
to
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, while the outbound flight number was changed from Flight 803 to Flight 801.


See also

*
List of accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A320 family For the entire A320 family, 160 aviation accidents and incidents have occurred (the latest accident with fatalities being Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 on 22 May 2020), including 37 hull loss accidents, and a total of fatalities in 1 ...
* Swissair Flight 111


Notes


References


External links


Archived live updates (no longer updated)
– ''The Guardian''
Archived live updates (no longer updated)
– BBC News
EgyptAir MS 804 Paris Cairo Alt link at Emergency Page
– EgyptAir
Statements regarding the loss of Egyptair Flight 804
Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
, the manufacturer of the aircraft involved
Accident to the Airbus A320, registered SU-GCC and operated by Egyptair
an
Accident to the Airbus A320, registered SU-GCC and operated by Egyptair, on 05/19/2016 in cruise off the Egyptian coast
the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety
Press releases
Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation The Ministry of Civil Aviation of Egypt (MCA, ar, وزارة الطيران المدني) is the ministry in charge of civil aviation in Egypt. Duties The ministry sets civil aviation regulations, sets airworthiness and all flight rules, and ai ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:EgyptAir Flight 804 2016 in Egypt 2016 in France">2016_in_Egypt.html" ;"title=" {{DEFAULTSORT:EgyptAir Flight 804 2016 in Egypt"> {{DEFAULTSORT:EgyptAir Flight 804 2016 in Egypt 2016 in France Accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A320 Aviation accidents and incidents in 2016 Aviation accidents and incidents in the Mediterranean Sea Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight fires Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error
804 __NOTOC__ Year 804 (Roman numerals, DCCCIV) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Abbasid Caliphate * Battle of Krasos: Emperor Nikephoros I refuses to pay th ...
May 2016 events in Egypt May 2016 events in Africa Egypt–France relations