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+--- Thread: Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years (/Thread-Egypt-releases-EgyptAir-804-report-after-8-years)
Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years - Zaphod58 - 10-30-2024
The Egyptian government has released the accident report in the crash of EgyptAir flight 804, an Airbus A320-232 that was flying from Charles de Gaul in Paris to Cairo on 19 May 2016. The flight had just passed from Greek control to Egyptian control when contact was lost. The aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean killing everyone on board (59 passengers and 7 crew). The aircraft was registered SU-GCC, and first flew on March 11, 2003. It had 48,052 hours and 20, 773 cycles at the time of the accident. Its last C check was completed on June 25, 2015, and the last A check was completed on March 28, 2016.
During the accident flight, the aircraft sent the following ACARS messages:
SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE
ANTI ICE R WINDOW
R SLIDING WINDOW SENSOR/IDWHC 2 (these messages were sent simultaneously)
One second later, ACARS sent:
AVIONICS SMOKE
Followed a second later by :
R FIXED WINDOW SENSOR/IDWHC 2
Followed immediately by:
AUTO FLT FCU 2 FAULT
F/CTL SEC 3 FAULT
At 2348:14 the Greek ATC cleared them to contact sector AC5, on frequency 124.7. There was no response from the crew. According to radar data, they were 14.8 nautical miles north of KUMBI, which is between Crete and Cyprus. At 0028:22 the AC5 controller asked HECC ATC if they had any contact with the flight. From 0028:48 to 0140:25 AC5 controllers asked multiple flights to try to contact MSR804, and they tried to contact them on 121.5 with no result. At 0029:57, per radar replay data, contact was lost with MSR804. AC5 controllers contacted MAMBO, a unit of the Hellenic Air Force, and asked if they had any radar contact at the last known location of MSR804, receiving a negative contact report from them. Air Ground Service was asked to send a SELCAL message to the flight asking them to contact ATC on 121.5 at 0034:42. At 0118:49, SAR operations launched, with a C-130 as HRK69A being the primary aircraft launched.
Just before 0130, ATC contacted MSR780, which was on a similar track and asked them to watch out for anything out of the ordinary. They reported seeing a light 10nm behind them.
The two data recorders were found on June 16 and 17, and were immediately returned to Egypt, who began work on them on June 18. Both data recorders had damage consistent with a high speed impact. A Honeywell Golden Chassis was used to attempt to download both recorders. The first attempt was declared a failure, and another attempt was made with a Honeywell Hand Held Download Unit, that resulted in the Golden Chassis being declared fully functional, but further attempts to download the unit failed. The recorder was examined, and multiple failures of pins of one of the chips was found. The FDR was sent to France, for the BEA to attempt a repair to the chip, and download the memory unit. They were able to successfully download the data, and recovered three and a half hours of data. The final 23 seconds is considered invalid data.
This is where the controversy starts. In November it was reported that human remains that were recovered had evidence of explosive traces on them. Multiple pieces of wreckage from the cabin were found with thermal damage evidence. There was no sound of an explosion on the FDR, and the first evidence of something wrong was the first officer saying "Fire fire" at 0025:30 UTC, followed immediately by a flight attendant that was in the cockpit and the Captain both saying fire, and asking for a fire extinguisher. At 0026:14, the FDR recorded a warning for lavatory smoke, followed quickly by avionics and cargo smoke warnings. Visual inspection of human remains showed evidence of fire traces, with solid particles embedded in the skin. Thermal effects were found on pieces of skin near the first officer seat, the right hand passenger door, and catering cart from the forward galley. A hissing sound consistent with high pressure oxygen was heard on the FDR as well.
The investigators claim that traces of DNT and TNT were found on passenger remains, with some being in the aft portion of the cabin, and a bomb was detonated in the galley just behind the cockpit. But the CVR doesn't show any indication of an explosion or blast. Supposedly the first officer had turned to talk to the flight attendant that entered the cockpit and saw fire on the antihijacking camera located just outside the cockpit. The hissing sound was heard on the CVR, starting at 0025:24 and lasted three minutes, which is the approximate capacity of the high pressure oxygen bottle for the crew. The report says there were no indications of anything abnormal with the crew or aircraft before the first hissing sound, but claims the oxygen leak was caused by the bomb breaking the oxygen line in the cockpit. The First Officer oxygen box was replaced two days before the accident flight. In the report in the CVR transcript, there's a hissing sound, followed by a pop sound, then a hissing sound again. But according to investigators, the oxygen leak came AFTER the supposed explosive device went off.
The traces of TNT were supposedly found on the Captain's seat in the cockpit, and in the very last row of seats in the cabin, but the aircraft flew on for 13 1/2 minutes after the first hissing sound was heard, and just over 9 minutes after the FDR failed and stopped recording.
RE: Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years - UltraBudgie - 10-31-2024
Well, after Flight 800 I don't expect to hear anything usefully objective or necessarily factual from these kind of reports, from any government.
Honestly I had never heard of this incident before. What do you think happened, who is responsible, and what might be the originating cause or motive? I suppose it's useless for me to try and not be somewhat jaded, because I am, but I would like an idea of why this should be considered important, if it should, other than the simple humanity of it all.
I did a quick Wikipedia search (I know, I know) and it wasn't very illuminating.
RE: Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years - Zaphod58 - 10-31-2024
(10-31-2024, 01:41 AM)UltraBudgie Wrote: Well, after Flight 800 I don't expect to hear anything usefully objective or necessarily factual from these kind of reports, from any government.
Honestly I had never heard of this incident before. What do you think happened, who is responsible, and what might be the originating cause or motive? I suppose it's useless for me to try and not be somewhat jaded, because I am, but I would like an idea of why this should be considered important, if it should, other than the simple humanity of it all.
I did a quick Wikipedia search (I know, I know) and it wasn't very illuminating.
Egypt is known for releasing bogus accident reports. If there was a bomb on board, that left explosive traces in the cockpit, and all the way to the back of the cabin, the CVR would have picked up the sound, and they wouldn’t have flown over 13 minutes afterwards. The French BEA didn’t find any traces of explosives initially in their tests.
In the EgyptAir 990 crash the NTSB reported that one of the pilots wanted revenge on a general that was on board, the CVR recorded him saying “Allah akbar” repeatedly, and a manual push forward on the control column was recorded, that remained, along with the other pilot pulling back on the control column. The NTSB reported it as pilot suicide. Egypt refused to accept the report, did their own “investigation” and determined it was an accident caused by a mechanical failure in the elevators causing a split elevator condition. The problem is that EgyptAir is state owned, and they’re not going to allow embarrassing things like accidents and suicide mar its name.
The evidence points to an oxygen leak in the First Officers high pressure oxygen bottle creating an oxygen rich environment, and someone smoking or a short in something. There have been known shorts in iPad charging systems used in the cockpit or even passenger seats.
RE: Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years - UltraBudgie - 10-31-2024
Thanks for the follow-up! I saw that France did their own investigation, too.
RE: Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years - Zaphod58 - 11-06-2024
(10-31-2024, 11:57 AM)UltraBudgie Wrote: Thanks for the follow-up! I saw that France did their own investigation, too.
The French BEA released a report in 2019 that said there were serious mechanical issues with the plane that weren't documented by pilots of previous flights, and the plane never should have been cleared for flight. They determined there was a fire in the cockpit caused by the Captain smoking, and a leaking oxygen mask creating an oxygen rich environment. The mask switch was set to Emergency which could leak to it leaking.
RE: Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years - Maxmars - 11-06-2024
Huh... that's something I hadn't considered... a fighter jet pilot smoking in the cockpit.
RE: Egypt releases EgyptAir 804 report after 8 years - Zaphod58 - 11-06-2024
(11-06-2024, 07:55 PM)Maxmars Wrote: Huh... that's something I hadn't considered... a fighter jet pilot smoking in the cockpit.
EgyptAir didn't ban smoking in the cockpit at the time of the crash. It's not confirmed that they have since, and anecdotal reports that pilots still smoke in the cockpit during flight.
