DOOMED FLIGHT MS804: FIRST
THE fire that downed EgyptAir flight MS804 was so rapid and catastrophic that experts fear it may have been sparked by a terrorist device.
The Airbus A320 was en route to Cairo from Paris with 66 people aboard when smoke filled the cabin and it went into a two-minute, seven-mile plunge.
Onboard data pointed to a blaze started by an incendiary device or a fire in the toilets behind the cockpit that spread to the rest of the plane.
Ex-National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith said the fact that there was so little time between the smoke warning and the jet’s disappearance suggests the disaster was not caused by a discarded cigarette or electrical fire.
He said: “Electrical fires don’t burn that fast and of course if somebody were to put a cigarette in a trash can with paper towels it definitely wouldn’t have burned that fast.
“It would have set off the sensor but the flight crew is trained to handle those types of fires and it would have given them time. Plus, they probably would have made a radio call.”
There was no distress signal from the crew and Alain Bouillard, former chief investigator for the French Bureau of Investigations, said the evidence pointed to terrorism or a “sudden technical problem”.
Eternity
Information from a respected aviation journal details devastating loss of control on flight MS804 – with alarms and computer-system failures in the 120 seconds before the stricken plane dropped off the radar.
A source in Cairo said: “Those two minutes may not seem like a long time before the plane disappeared but it would have seemed like an eternity for the passengers and crew.”
If a terror device is confirmed as the cause, it marks a terrifying new tactic – starting a fire with a timed device as the plane flies at its top speed of 541mph and its maximum altitude of 37,000ft to guarantee total carnage.
Islamic State, the group most likely to be behind the attack, would usually claim responsibility swiftly – as it did after the loss of the Russian Metrojet flight over Egypt’s Sinai Desert, in which 224 died last October.
The passenger list has not thrown up any suspects, said Representative Adam B Schiff, a member of the US House Intelligence Committee.
The first images emerged yesterday of wreckage recovered from the Mediterranean Sea. They included fragments of fuselage bearing the AirEgypt logo, a pink baby blanket, a shoe, a handbag and lifejackets.
Egyptian army sources said searchers have picked up a signal from the plane’s black box recorder, which will hold vital clues – but it has yet to be recovered.
Flight MS804 was lost at a point nicknamed “Coffin Corner” by pilots, where even modern jets are at their most vulnerable and hard to control if any problems arise.
Technical output from the jet’s Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System revealed an icing sensor failing on the right cockpit window, possibly caused by a fire burning through wires. Over the next two minutes, smoke alarms went off in
a bathroom and the avionics bay underneath the cockpit, where the plane’s electronic equipment is housed.
Industry expert Robert W Mann said the messages could signal a fire or rapid decompression, where plane sensors can mistake condensation for smoke.
Finally, at 2:29am on Thursday, there were two more alerts having to do with the plane’s flight control computer systems – the autopilot and spoiler elevator controller for pitch and roll. “The last two are troubling,” said Mr Mann. “You are starting to see things rapidly degrade. First, there was a problem with the auto flight control computer. The jet would have been near maximum speed and elevation.
“That is the most efficient way for jetliners to fly, and it is safe, 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. It looks like you have a progressive flight control system failure.” At 2:29:40am, as the aircraft left Greek airspace, it made a 90-degree turn to the left then a full circle to the right, spiralling to 15,000ft from 37,000ft, before plunging again to 9,000ft as it disappeared from radar.
Catastrophic
Another theory is that an issue with the pressurisation systems could have caused the fuselage to rupture. At high altitude, such a rupture could be potentially catastrophic if the crew were unable to manage a controlled descent and emergency landing.
Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International, said technical failure could not be ruled out.
He said: “There was smoke in the lavatory, in the avionics bay, and over a period of three minutes the aircraft systems shut down. That’s starting to indicate it probably wasn’t a hijack, nor a struggle in the cockpit, more likely a fire on board.”
The plane’s wreckage lies at one of the deepest points of the Mediterranean, close to Crete and around 180 miles off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt.