Coroner pledges answers in geologist’s plane death
ACORONER has promised the family of a man who lost his life when an Egyptian commercial aeroplane crashed over the Mediterranean last year that answers will be found.
Richard Osman, from Carmarthen, was on board Flight MS804, heading from Paris to Cairo, when it disappeared from radar overnight after making two sharp turns and plunging into the sea in May of last year.
The geologist, who has a brother living in Swansea, was on his way to work in Egypt just two weeks after the birth of his second child with his French wife, Aurelie.
In a pre-inquest review held in Llanelli Town Hall yesterday, Carmarthenshire senior coroner Mark Layton explained that an inquest into Mr Osman’s death could not proceed because an investigation into the flight’s disappearance had yet to be completed.
He said: “I promise Mrs Osman and other family members, everything I can do, I will, to establish how Mr Osman came to die.
“I’m sure that with that air investigation report we will be able to do that, although it may be six months or years before we are able to hold a meaningful inquest.
“But it’s important that we get there eventually to be able to provide the family with answers.”
Explaining the difficulty involved in the process, he said that he had been told that by the Egyptians that “the crash investigation being carried out by the Egyptian Air Accident Investigation Committee is not completed” and that “it would not be appropriate to comment when the investigation is continuing and they are yet to reach a conclusion”.
Mr Layton said: “The obvious difficulty here is the Egyptian airline is based in Egypt and is not under the jurisdiction of this country.
“I asked when the report would be available and whether they would be releasing an interim report. That hasn’t happened in 12 months, as is usually the case.
“Their response was the matter should be referred to the Egyptian prosecutions office.
“I will go back to the Egyptian airline investigation team and ask them when they are going to have a report, and explain why I need the report and that it isn’t part of any criminal investigation.
“I will also write to the Egyptian Prosecutor’s Office as well to see if there is any information coming from them.”
He added there was not much more he could do in the meantime.
He said: “I have already made inquiries with our air accident investigation branch, only to be told that they have no information at all involving the crash.”