Six years after the tragedy, the thesis of a technical incident is confirmed. The crash of the Egyptair plane in the Mediterranean in 2016, which killed 66 people, was due to the leak of oxygen from the co-pilot’s mask, according to the conclusions of French experts of which AFP learned on Thursday. Flight MS804, connecting Paris to Cairo, crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, 2016 between Crete and the northern coast of Egypt, after suddenly disappearing from radar screens.
The 66 people on board, including 40 Egyptians and 15 French, had perished. A month later, the black boxes had been found. While Cairo very quickly put forward the track of an attack, Paris had privileged from the start the thesis of a technical incident.
A fire started in the cockpit
According to various expert reports submitted to the French judicial inquiry since the crash, of which AFP was aware, a fire broke out on board the cockpit. The crew had left the cockpit hastily. The pilots were apparently unable to find and therefore use a fire extinguisher, which caused the crash a few minutes later.
“The oxygen leak from the co-pilot’s quick-fit mask is retained as being the determining factor in the cause of the fire”, detail the five experts in conclusion of their last 134-page report dating from March and unveiled by the Corriere della Sera.
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In a previous report from June 2021, experts had ruled out “a spontaneous fire start in the sole presence of the oxygen leak”. They mentioned three possible triggers “all of human origin”: “a blanket charged with static electricity requested by the pilot” to sleep, “fatty substances forming part of the meal served to the pilot and finally a high probability of a lit cigarette or a cigarette butt burning in an ashtray”, while the crew smoked regularly in the cockpit.
“A series of negligence”
The most recent report repeats that it is not possible to “establish with certainty (…) the exact cause of the origin of the fire (cigarette, greasy substance, spark of static electricity)”. The experts also noted “unprofessional behavior” by the crew: music, multiple comings and goings in the cockpit, “lack of attention from the crew regarding flight monitoring”, etc.
“There was a maintenance deficit, a series of negligence and serious irregularities”, denounced two representatives of the association of families of victims of the Egyptair MS 804 crash, asking for the airline to be placed under investigation.