The Jim Bakker Show

Russia hunts for body fragments, clues after fatal plane crash

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry members work at the crash site of the short-haul AN-148 airplane operated by Saratov Airlines in Moscow Region, Russia February 12, 2018.

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Emergency workers in Russia searched snow-covered fields outside Moscow on Monday, looking for body fragments and clues after a fatal plane crash a day earlier killed all 71 people on board.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a special commission to investigate what caused the AN-148 plane operated by Saratov Airlines to crash outside Moscow shortly after taking off for the city of Orsk about 900 miles (1,500 km) southeast of the capital.

Among the possible causes investigators are looking into are weather, human error and the plane’s technical condition. The crew did not send any distress signals.

Experts plan to study the plane’s two flight recorders, which were recovered, as well as plane fragments. Footage from a CCTV camera that captured some of what happened was posted online on Monday. It showed what looked like a large ball of fire streaking through the sky.

Investigators, who have opened a criminal case into the tragedy, said in a statement however that the plane had been in one piece when it plummeted toward the ground and not on fire. An explosion had occurred only after it crashed, they said.

Debris and human remains were spread over a radius of one km (less than a mile) around the crash site and recovery teams had found over 200 body fragments so far, the RIA news agency reported, saying the search could carry on for a week.

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry members work at the crash site of the short-haul AN-148 airplane operated by Saratov Airlines in Moscow Region, Russia February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

MOURNING

Officials from Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry told a meeting broadcast on state TV on Monday that DNA tests were being organized with the relatives of those killed to try to identify body fragments.

The plane, manufactured in 2010, had been carrying 65 passengers and six crew. The passenger list showed many young people were on board, including a five-year-old girl.

Mourners left flowers, soft toys and photographs at Orsk airport on Monday.

“We believed until the very end yesterday that at least someone would survive,” said a distraught Ekaterina Zakladnaya, 20, whose mother Natalia was killed in the crash.

“We phoned the airports and barely managed to get through and then they published the lists and mummy was second from the bottom.”

The plane’s operator, Saratov Airlines, said in a statement on Monday it was temporarily grounding its fleet of AN-148 planes until investigators had established what happened.

It said the plane involved in the crash had undergone thorough checks last month and that it had successfully flown several other routes on the same day as the crash.

(Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov and Reuters TV; Editing by William Maclean)

Russia finds main black box from Black Sea crash jet

Flowers in memory of passengers and crew members of Russian military Tu-154, which crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday, are placed at an embankment in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia

By Andrew Osborn and Peter Hobson

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has found the main flight recorder from a military plane that crashed into the Black Sea killing all 92 on board, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, amid unconfirmed reports that authorities had grounded all aircraft of the same type.

The recorder, one of several reported to be on board, contains information that could help investigators identify the cause of Sunday’s crash, which killed dozens of Red Army Choir singers and dancers en route to Syria to entertain Russian troops in the run-up to the New Year.

Investigators have so far said that pilot error or a technical fault, rather than terrorism, are most likely to have caused the Defence Ministry’s Tupolev-154 to crash into the sea.

The black box, which was found by a remote-controlled underwater vehicle at a depth of around 55ft (17 metres) and 1 mile (1,600 metres) from the resort of Sochi, has been sent to a Defence Ministry facility in Moscow for analysis.

“The casing holding the flight recorder is in a satisfactory condition,” the ministry said in a statement.

“After it is technically cleaned in distilled water we will start transcribing it.”

The ministry said numerous fragments of the plane had been found, including the engine, the landing gear and pieces of the fuselage.

The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying Russia had grounded all TU-154 planes until the cause of Sunday’s crash became clear. There was no official confirmation of that.

The Defence Ministry says the downed jet, a Soviet-era plane built in 1983, had last been serviced in September and underwent more major repairs in December 2014.

Russian pilots say the TU-154 is still flight worthy, though major Russian commercial airlines have long since replaced it with Western-built planes. Experts say only two are registered with Russian passenger airlines with the rest registered to various government ministries.

The last big TU-154 crash was in 2010 when a Polish jet carrying then-president Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland’s political elite went down in western Russia killing everyone on board.

The Interfax news agency, citing a law enforcement source, said a second flight recorder had also been found in the wreckage of Sunday’s crash, but not yet raised to the surface.

The Defence Ministry said that search and rescue teams have so far recovered 12 bodies and 156 body fragments.

(Editing by John Stonestreet and Raissa Kasolowsky)

All 92 on Syria-bound Russian military jet killed in crash

A woman lays flowers in memory of passengers and crew members of Russian military Tu-154 plane, which crashed into the Black Sea, at the Russian embassy in Minsk

By Polina Devitt and Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian military plane carrying 92 people, including dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members, crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday, killing everyone on board, Russian authorities said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said one of its TU-154 Tupolev planes had disappeared from radar screens at 0525 MSK (9.25 p.m. ET), two minutes after taking off from Sochi in southern Russia, where it had stopped to refuel from Moscow, on its way to Syria.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a ministry spokesman, told reporters that nobody had survived.

“The area of the crash site has been established. No survivors have been spotted,” he said. An unnamed ministry source told Russian news agencies no life rafts had been found, while another source told the Interfax agency that the plane had not sent an SOS signal.

In televised comments, President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St Petersburg, declared Dec. 26 a national day of mourning.

The jet, a Soviet-era Tupolev plane built in 1983, had been carrying 84 passengers and eight crew members.

At least 60 were members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, better known internationally as the Red Army Choir, and were being flown out to Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria to entertain troops in the run-up to the New Year.

Nine Russian reporters were also on board as well as military servicemen.

Konashenkov said fragments of the plane had been found at a depth of about 70 meters (yards) in the Black Sea about 1.5 km (1 mile) off the coast near the city of Sochi.

“The search operation is continuing,” said Konashenkov. “Four ships, four helicopters, and a plane and a drone are working in the area,” he said, saying a military commission had flown to Sochi to look into what happened.

Six ships from Russia’s Black Sea fleet were on their way to the crash site, and more than 100 divers were being drafted in to search the area along with a mini-submarine.

Konashenkov said four bodies had been recovered from the sea. Russian news agencies cited a higher figure.

Russia’s RIA news agency, citing an unidentified security source, said preliminary information indicated that the plane had crashed because of a technical malfunction or a pilot error. Another source told Russian agencies that the possibility of a militant act had been ruled out. The weather had been good.

Konashenkov said the plane had last been serviced in September and undergone more major repairs in December 2014. He said the pilot was experienced and that the plane had about 7,000 flying hours on its clock.

According to the defense ministry’s passenger manifest, Elizaveta Glinka, a member of Putin’s advisory human rights council, was on the plane.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was too early to say what had caused the crash. Putin was being kept constantly informed of the latest developments, Peskov said.

Russian military investigators said in a statement they had opened a criminal investigation into the crash.

The Kremlin said Putin expressed his deepest condolences to those who had lost loved ones in the crash and ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to head a government investigatory commission.

Russia’s Defence Ministry regularly flies musicians into Syria to put on concerts for military personnel. The base they were heading for, Hmeymim, is in Latakia province. It is from there that Russia launches air strikes against Syrian rebels.

The last big TU-154 crash was in 2010 when a Polish jet carrying then-president Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland’s political elite crashed in western Russia killing everyone on board.

Russian news agencies cited Denis Manturov, the Russian Transport Minister, as saying on Sunday it was premature to talk about withdrawing the TU-154 from service.

On Dec. 19, a Russian military jet crashed in Siberia with 39 people on board as it tried to make an emergency landing near a Soviet-era military base. Nobody was killed in that incident, though 32 people were airlifted to hospital.

(Additional reporting by Denis Pinchuk and Svetlana Reiter; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Pakistan mourns 47 killed in air crash, as investigators seek answers

Rescue workers survey the site of a plane crashed a day earlier near the village of Saddha Batolni, near Abbotabad, Pakistan,

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Asad Hashim

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan on Thursday mourned the 47 victims of its deadliest plane crash in four years, including a famed rock star-turned-Muslim evangelist, as officials sought to pinpoint the cause of the disaster.

Engine trouble was initially believed responsible, but many questions remain, stirring new worries about the safety record of money-losing state carrier Pakistani International Airlines.

The ATR-42 aircraft involved in the crash had undergone regular maintenance, including an “A-check” certification in October, said airline chairman Muhammad Azam Saigol.

“I want to make it clear that it was a perfectly sound aircraft,” Saigol said.

The aircraft appeared to have suffered a failure in one of its two turboprop engines just before the crash, he added, but this would have to be confirmed by an investigation.

“I think there was no technical error or human error,” Saigol told a news conference late on Wednesday. “Obviously there will be a proper investigation.”

Grief erupted online soon after flight PK661 smashed into the side of a mountain near the town of Havelian, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, on Wednesday, after taking off from the mountain resort region of Chitral.

It crashed just 50 km (31 miles) short of its destination, the international airport in Islamabad, the capital.

A PIA spokesman said the pilot, who issued a “mayday” emergency call before the crash, may have prevented an even bigger catastrophe by manoeuvring the plane away from populated areas.

“It seems that the pilot directed it away from people’s homes. Otherwise there could have been even more damage,” Daniyal Gillani told Reuters outside a morgue at an Islamabad hospital where bodies were being identified.

Stunned relatives gathered there, some weeping quietly, others besieging officials with questions.

“What can I tell you?” said Raja Amir, as he waited for his mother’s remains. “I don’t know what we will get of her. There is still another hell to go through.”

Remains continue to be brought by helicopter to Islamabad, where DNA tests will be used to identify them.

Television images appeared to show rescue officials retrieving the aircraft’s “black box” flight recorder from the wreckage, and the airline confirmed the recovery to the Geo News channel.

Relatives console one another as they wait to supply DNA samples for the identification of remains of victims of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash at PIMS hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan December 8, 2016. REUTERS/Caren Firouz

ROCK STAR AND ROYALTY

Much of the public’s anguish focused on Junaid Jamshed, the vocalist of Vital Signs, one of Pakistan’s first and most successful bands of the 1990s, who abandoned his music career in 2001 to become a travelling evangelist with the conservative Tableeghi Jamaat group.

Many comments on social network Twitter pointed up the contrast between his two roles, first as a pop sensation singing about love and heartbreak, and then as a stern, bearded preacher admonishing young people for straying from Islam.

“Junaid Jamshed’s journey was so quintessentially Pakistani. Conflicted, passionate, devoted, ubersmart, and so, so talented. Tragic loss,” Mosharraf Zaidi, an Islamabad-based development professional and analyst, said in a tweet.

Others simply shared his band’s many hits, such as ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’, which has become an unofficial anthem, played at public gatherings since its release in 1987.

Among the 46 others who perished were two infants, three foreigners – two Austrians and a Chinese man – and five crew listed on the manifest.

Foreign tourists increasingly travel to Chitral, along with numerous domestic visitors, as Pakistan emerges from years of militant violence.

The dead included a member of Chitral’s traditional royal family, his wife and family, besides a regional administrative official, Osama Ahmad Warraich, killed with his wife and infant daughter.

At a funeral for the Warraich family, Osama’s mother was seen waving at the coffins and weeping: “Let me say goodbye to my kids one more time”.

SAFETY CONCERNS

The aircraft, made by French company ATR in 2007, had racked up 18,739 flight hours since joining PIA’s fleet that year.

Its captain, Saleh Janjua, had logged more than 12,000 flight hours over his career, the airline said.

Concern is growing over air safety as media in recent years have reported several near-misses.

In the worst disaster, in 2010, all 152 people on board were killed when a plane operated by airline Air Blue crashed in heavy rain near Islamabad.

Two years later, all 127 aboard were killed when a plane operated by Bhoja Air crashed near the city.

The father of one of the crew who died lashed out at PIA and the government, saying better management could have prevented the crash.

“I have no hope,” Raja Abdul Ghaffar said after the body of his son was brought to the morgue. “I am left with nothing.”

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad, Amjad Ali; Writing by Asad Hashim; Editing by Kay Johnson and Clarence Fernandez)

Plane with Brazil’s soccer team crashes in Colombia, 75 dead

Wreckage from a plane that crashed into Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense, is seen near Medellin, Colombia,

By Fredy Builes and Paolo Whitaker

LA UNION, Colombia/ CHAPECO, Brazil (Reuters) – A charter plane carrying Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense to the biggest game in its history crashed in the Colombian mountains after an electrical fault, killing 75 people on board, authorities said on Tuesday.

Colombia’s worst air disaster in two decades came as the team from Brazil’s top soccer league flew to face Atletico Nacional of Medellin in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final, South America’s equivalent of the Europa League.

The plane, en route from Bolivia where the team had a stopover, went down about 10:15 p.m. on Monday night with 72 passengers and a crew of nine on board.

It had reported electrical problems and declared an emergency minutes earlier as it neared its destination, Medellin airport officials said.

At the crash scene near the town of La Union in wooded highlands outside Medellin, dozens of bodies were laid out and covered with sheets around the wreckage of the BAe 146.

The plane was shattered against a mountainside with the tail end virtually disintegrated. Rain hampered dozens of rescuers as they combed the muddy and forested area.

Rescue crew work in the wreckage from a plane that crashed into Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Fredy Builes

Colombia’s civil aviation head, Alfredo Bocanegra, said there were 75 confirmed fatalities, with six injured survivors. They were listed as three players, a journalist and two members of the flight crew. Two of the six were in grave condition.

It was the first time Chapecoense, a small club from the southern Brazilian town of Chapeco, had reached the final of a major South American club competition.

Brazilian news organizations said 21 journalists had been on board the plane to cover the match.

Global soccer was stunned, matches were canceled around South America, and Brazil declared three days of mourning.

“I express my solidarity in this sad hour during which tragedy has beset dozens of Brazilian families,” President Michel Temer said.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted his condolences. “Solidarity with the families of the victims and Brazil,” he said.

Colombia’s civil aviation authority named the survivors as players Alan Ruschel, Jackson Follmann and Hélio Neto; journalist Rafael Valmorbida; air stewardess Ximena Suarez and flight technician Erwin Tumiri.

Flight tracking service Flightradar24 said on Twitter the last signal from flight 2933 was received when it was at 15,500 feet (4,724 m), about 30 km (18.64 miles) from its destination, which sits at an altitude of 7,000 feet (2133 m).

The BAe 146 was produced by a company that is now part of the UK’s BAE Systems

The team flew Brazilian airline Gol to Santa Cruz in Bolivia and then took a flight from there to Medellin on the plane run by a Bolivian-based, Venezuelan-owned company called LaMia.

GLOBAL SOCCER WORLD SHAKEN

The crash evoked memories of a series of soccer air disasters in the 20th century, including the Munich crash in 1958 that killed 23 people, including eight Manchester United players, journalists and traveling officials.

World governing body FIFA said on Twitter its “thoughts were with the victims, their families, fans of Chapecoense and media organizations in Brazil on this tragic day.”

Chapecoense qualified for the biggest game in its history after overcoming the Argentine club San Lorenzo in the semi-final on away goals following a 1-1 draw in Buenos Aires and 0-0 draw at home.

They were underdogs for the match against a club going for a rare double after winning the Copa Libertadores in July.

Fans of Chapecoense soccer team are pictured in front of the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

Chapecoense was the 21st biggest club in Brazil in terms of revenue in 2015, bringing in 46 million reais ($13.5 million), according to a list by Brazilian bank Itau BBA.

The club has built its success on a frugal spending policy that eschewed big money signings and concentrated on blending young talent and experienced journeymen.

“They were the hope of our city,” said Jean Panegalli, 17, a student in Chapeco. “They played for love of the shirt and not for money. They played with the commitment that only those who have lived here know.

“They were ferocious.”

Several hundred dejected fans gathered around the team’s Conda stadium in Chapeco, many of them wearing Chapecoense’s green strip. At least one young fan burst into tears

“It is still hard to believe what has happened to the Chapecoense team just when it was on the rise,” said Agenor Danieli, a 64-year-old pensioner in the agricultural town of around 200,000 people in Santa Catarina state.

“We are in crisis. The town has come to a stop. Companies are giving people the day off so they can come here to the stadium. We need to pray. It still doesn’t feel real.”

Chapecoense’s best-known player was Cleber Santana, a midfielder whose best years were spent in Spain with Atletico Madrid and Mallorca. Coach Caio Junior also was experienced, having managed at some of Brazil’s biggest clubs, Botafogo, Flamengo and Palmeiras among them.

The crash prompted an outpouring of solidarity and grief on social media from the soccer community, with Brazilian top flight teams Flamengo and Santos tweeting messages of support.

Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas tweeted: “My condolences for the plane accident that carried @ChapecoenseReal. Tough moment for football. Good luck and stay strong!”

The South American football federation suspended all games and other activities following the crash.

It was Colombia’s worst air accident since more than 160 people on an American Airlines plane died in 1995 in a mountainous zone near Cali.

($1=3.40 reais)

(Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Andrew Cawthorne; Additional reporting by Helen Murphy, Julia Symmes Cobb and Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Andrew Downie, Anthony Boadle and Dan Flynn in Brazil, Girish Gupta in Caracas; Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Kieran Murray)

International experts in Egypt to inspect Metrojet wreckage

An Egyptian man puts flowers near debris at the crash site of a Russian airliner in al-Hasanah area at El Arish city, north Egypt, November 1, 2015.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Experts from Russia and Germany are in Egypt to inspect the wreckage of a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Sinai last year killing all 224 people on board, the Egyptian-led investigating committee said on Monday.

Irish, American, and French experts will join the inspection team which will seek to pinpoint the area where the plane began to break up, the committee said in a statement.

“Representatives from Russia and Germany have arrived today to inspect the wreckage of the doomed Russian Metrojet plane which crashed over the Sinai Peninsula last October,” the committee said.

Parts of the wreckage had been previously gathered and moved to Cairo International Airport. The experts will attempt to reconstruct the plane.

The Airbus A321, operated by Metrojet, had been returning Russian holiday makers from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh to St Petersburg when it broke up over Sinai, killing all on board. Islamic State said it brought down the plane with a bomb smuggled inside a fizzy drink can.

Russia and Western governments quickly confirmed a bomb brought the plane down and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi later said the cause was terrorism. Britain and Russia suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh as a result, devastating Egyptian tourism, a lifeline of an already battered economy.

Russia is participating in the investigation as the airline’s country of origin, Germany as the manufacturer’s, Ireland because the plane was registered there, France because that is where it was designed, and the United States as the engine maker’s country of origin.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Lin Noueihed)

Second flight recorder retrieved from crashed EgyptAir flight

People light candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804, at the Cairo Opera

CAIRO (Reuters) – A second flight recorder has been retrieved from the crashed EgyptAir flight MS804, containing data from aircraft systems which could shed light on what brought the plane down last month, Egyptian investigators said on Friday.

An Egyptian committee investigating the crash into the eastern Mediterranean Sea made the announcement a day after search teams found the cockpit voice recorder in a breakthrough for investigators seeking to explain what caused the plane to go down, killing all 66 people on board.

The Airbus A320 crashed early on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo. The two blackbox recorders are crucial to explaining what went wrong.

The Egyptian investigation committee said preparations were under way to transfer the two flight recorders to Alexandria where they will be received by an official from the general prosecutor’s office and investigators.

No group has claimed responsibility for bringing down the plane, but investigation sources have said that it was too early to rule out any causes, including terrorism.

If intact, the cockpit recorder should reveal pilot conversations and any cockpit alarms, as well as other clues such as engine noise. But crash experts say it may provide only limited insight into what caused the crash, especially if the crew was confused or unable to diagnose any faults.

For that, the second black box containing data from the aircraft systems is needed.

The crash is the third blow since October to Egypt’s travel industry, which is still suffering from the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

A Russian plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula last October, killing all 224 people on board in an attack claimed by Islamic State. In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked by a man wearing a fake suicide belt. No one was hurt.

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alison Williams and Dominic Evans)

Two jets from elite U.S. Military squadrons crash

The Thunderbirds perform a fly-over as graduates from the Air Force Academy toss their hats in the air at the conclusion of their commencement ceremony in Colorado Springs

(Reuters) – Two fighter jets from elite U.S. military demonstration squadrons crashed in separate incidents on Thursday, including one that had just done a flyover of the Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado where President Barack Obama had spoken.

In Tennessee, a pilot from the Navy’s Blue Angels squadron was killed when his F/A-18 jet crashed in Smyrna, about 24 miles (39 km) southeast of Nashville, a Navy spokeswoman said.

The crash occurred about 2 miles (3 km) from an airport runway while the Blue Angels were practicing for a weekend air show, the Navy said, adding that the cause of the crash was being investigated. The pilot’s name was not made public.

In Colorado, a pilot with the Air Force’s Thunderbirds squadron was unhurt when his F-16 jet crashed in a field 5 miles (8 km) south of Peterson Air Force Base, the Air Force said.

The pilot, whose name was not released, ejected safely and was picked up by emergency response crews, the Air Force said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said a military helicopter that had been supporting Obama’s motorcade on the drive back to Peterson AFB peeled off to find the crash site.

A Secret Service agent onboard who is also an emergency medic assessed the pilot, who was then flown to Peterson. The helicopter then resumed its mission in support of Obama’s motorcade.

Obama later visited the Thunderbird pilot at Peterson to thank him for his service and express relief he had not been seriously hurt, Earnest said.

Earnest said the pilot was up and walking around when the president saw him. The president also thanked the emergency responders who picked up the pilot.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known and the Air Force said it would undertake an investigation. The Air Force’s Air Combat Command said on Twitter that no one was hurt on the ground and there was no hazard to the public.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Timothy Gardner and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by David Alexander and Eric Beech; Editing by Toni Reinhold and James Dalgleish)

MH17 investigation at ‘advanced stage’

Emergencies Ministry member walks at a site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Prosecutors conducting the criminal investigation into the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine two years ago said on Friday it was at “a very advanced stage” and that they would present their conclusions after the summer.

In a statement, prosecutors said they had made “several requests” for legal assistance from countries involved in the case, but were still waiting for information from Russia about the Buk missile that is believed to have brought down, killing 298 people.

The investigation is being carried out by a joint investigation team involving officials from Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine and led by the Netherlands, from where two thirds of the flight’s passengers came.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; editing by Andrew Roche)

French, Italian firms to help search for EgyptAir black boxes

Recovered debris of the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea are seen in this still image taken from video

By Ahmed Aboulenein

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt is taking on two companies, one French and one Italian, to help search for the black boxes of an EgyptAir plane that crashed in deep water in the Mediterranean Sea, the airline’s chairman said on Wednesday

EgyptAir flight 804 crashed on May 19 with 66 people on board including 30 Egyptians and 15 from France, and nearly a week later investigators have no clear picture of the plane’s final moments.

EgyptAir chairman Safwat Musallam did not name the companies involved, but he told a news conference they were able to carry out searches at a depth of 3,000 meters.

The plane and its black box recorders, which could explain what brought down the Paris-to-Cairo flight as it entered Egyptian air space, have not been located.

The black boxes are believed to be lying in up to 3,000 meters of water, on the edge of the range for hearing and locating signals emitted by the boxes.

Maritime search experts say this means acoustic hydrophones must be towed in the water at depths of up to 2,000 meters in order to have the best chance of picking up the signals.

Until recently, aviation sources say, the US Navy or its private contractor Phoenix International were considered among the only sources for equipment needed to search on the correct frequency for black box pingers at such depths.

The US Navy said on Tuesday it had not been asked for help.

Batteries powering the signals sent from the black boxes typically last only 30 days, but the airline’s deputy chairman Ahmed Adel said the search would continue beyond then if necessary, using other means to locate the recorders.

“There are many examples in similar air accidents when 30 days passed without finding the box yet … these planes’ black boxes were found,” he said.

‘PLANE’S MACHINES WERE SAFE’

Musallam reiterated earlier comments from sources within the Egyptian investigation committee who said that the jet had shown no sign of technical problems before taking off from Paris.

He said the Airbus 320 was given a regular check by an Egyptian engineer and two Egyptian technicians at Paris airport.

“The engineer and the pilot both signed the Aircraft Technical Log which stated that the check found that all the plane’s machines were safe,” he said.

The investigation sources said the plane disappeared off radar screens less than a minute after entering Egyptian airspace and – contrary to reports from Greece – there was no sign that it had swerved sharply before crashing.

The crew did not make contact with Egyptian air traffic control, they said.

With no flight recorders to check and only fragmentary data from a handful of fault messages registering smoke in the plane in the minutes before it crashed, investigators are also looking to debris and body parts for clues.

One Egyptian forensics official said the small amount of human remains recovered pointed to an explosion on board though no trace of explosives had been detected.

But Hisham Abdelhamid, head of Egypt’s forensics authority, said this assessment was “mere assumptions” and that it was too early to draw conclusions.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Dominic Evans and Richard Balmforth)

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