Gość: jacek
IP: *.u.mcnet.pl
15.11.04, 09:24
November 12, 2004
An Egyptian airliner that crashed in January killing 148 people went into a
steep turn after take-off and the crew did not fully correct it before the
plane plunged into the Red Sea, investigators said on Thursday.
The January 3 crash, in which 133 French tourists died, took place minutes
after the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 took off from the diving resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh bound for Cairo and Paris.
"The plane took a shallow right turn which turned into a steep right turn,"
head investigator Shaker Kelada told a news conference. "Recovery was
attempted, but there was not enough recovery before it dived into the sea.
"Whether or not more could have been done is yet to be decided," he said in
answer to a question about whether the crew had done all it could to recover
control of the plane.
Kelada said his team would spend two months analyzing the results of their
investigations, after which a preliminary report would be issued. A final
report would be ready around June.
Relatives of the French victims have accused Paris of making no effort to
clarify the causes of the disaster, which they say could have been avoided.
Switzerland barred Flash Airlines from entering its airspace more than a year
before the crash, but Flash denied the ban was linked to safety problems.
(Reuters)