Briton killed in jet disaster had just become a father
A BRITON on board the EgyptAir passenger jet that disappeared yesterday had become a father again just three weeks ago.
Richard Osman, 40, is said to have been ‘deliriously happy’ at the birth of his second daughter.
The doctor’s son was among 66 passengers and crew killed when the Airbus 320 from Paris to Cairo vanished – apparently blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb. The jet is said to have made ‘sudden swerves’ in mid-air, lurching 90 degrees to the left and circling to the right before plunging into the Mediterranean.
If terrorism is confirmed, it is the third atrocity France has suffered in 16 months.
Infrared satellite images suggested an explosion on board and last night American intelligence agencies told their Whitehall counterparts they believed terrorists were to blame, sources said.
No group has so far claimed responsibility, but among the fears is that jihadis have exposed a fatal weakness in western European airports by pulling off a spectacular breach of security at Charles de Gaulle, where the flight began.
The hub is used by tens of thousands of Britons each year, but last year more than 50 workers with airside access were sacked for having ‘extreme Islamic sympathies’.
EgyptAir Flight MS804 was on its fifth and final flight of the day when it dropped out of the sky yesterday at 1.30am UK time. lost Withoutto radar any 130 distressmiles southcall, it of was the Greek island of Karpathos, about 30 minutes flying time from Cairo.
Mr Osman, a geologist from Carmarthen, West Wales, had been on his way to Egypt as part of his work for a gold mining company. His second daughter Olympe was born on April 27, and he also had a 14month-old girl, Victios, with his 36year-old French-born wife Aurelie. They lived together in Jersey. Last night his brother Alastair Osman said: ‘I still can’t take it in. I got a call from our sister first thing this morning and I’m still in shock. ‘Richard was so happy at the birth of his second daughter, and yet weeks later he is no longer with us – it’s an absolute tragedy.’ The 36- year- old biochemistry student at Swansea University said: ‘He was really happy about having the baby and was looking forward to enjoying a lovely family life with his two girls.’
He added: ‘ This is the reality of Isis and groups like that. They don’t think any of these people have family members, or a past, or a history of hopes and dreams.’ Mr Osman went to Queen Elizabeth school in Carmarthen before going to Kingston University and then taking a masters degree at Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall.
His father, Dr Mohamed Fekry Ali Osman, was an Egyptian who worked as an ear nose and throat consultant at Singleton hospital, Swansea. He died aged 70 in 2013. Air traffic controllers reported the EgyptAir pilot had been ‘in good spirits’ 25 minutes before contact was lost. The aircraft began Thursday at the Eritrean capital Asmara, whose airport British intelligence says is a security ‘joke’ because security passes are frequently swapped around.
The aircraft flew to Cairo and then performed a return trip to Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, where Islamic State fanatics last year twice carried out attacks on tourists.
France is still in the grip of a state of emergency following the Paris massacre last November in which 130 were slaughtered by Islamic State fanatics, and the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015.
It is also the third crisis for Egyptian aviation in a year, dealing another hammer blow to its tourism industry. Islamic State used
‘Looking forward to family life’
Sharm el-Sheikh airport to plant a bomb that downed a Russian holiday jet over the Sinai in October, and an EgyptAir flight was hijacked in March and forced to land in Cyprus. Yesterday an RAF hercules aircraft based in Cyprus and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Mounts Bay were helping search the Mediterranean.
however, a senior Greek air safety official warned that debris spotted in the sea did not come from an aircraft. The 56 passengers on board MS804 also included 30 Egyptians, 15 French, one Belgian, one Iraqi, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi Arabian, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian and one Canadian. There were ten crew including three security guards.
david Cameron said: ‘I absolutely feel for them [the families]. This is obviously a dreadful event.’
In Paris, an airport employee was reported to be ‘devastated’ after helping a family board the flight after they arrived late. Egypt’s aviation minister Sherif Fathy said there had been no specific threats but the chances it was a terror attack ‘is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure’.
Russian security chief Alexander Bortnikov went further, saying: ‘In all likelihood it was a terror attack.’
Egyptair said security scans on the aircraft had taken place prior to takeoff from Paris. A focus for investigators is whether a bomb with a timer was smuggled on board earlier in the day. Planes rarely undergo extensive security checks between flights.
Intelligence sources have feared for months that Al Qaeda is perfecting bombs that cannot be detected.
Tory former minister Sir Gerald howarth yesterday demanded to know if the Government was satisfied that French measures to screen passengers and luggage ‘meet the kind of requirements we in the United Kingdom feel are necessary?’