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| Africa North | ||
| EgyptAir plane: fire in front lavatory was first sign | ||
| 2016-05-22 | ||
Experts have drawn various conclusions from leaked data about alerts sent out by the doomed jet in its final moments, with many pointing out that for now any information gleaned is 'pure conjecture'. While the data indicates that something catastrophic did occur on board the plane - seeming to rule out theories that it was deliberately crashed into the sea by a pilot or hijacker - there is disagreement as to whether it points to a bomb or a fire on board. Egyptian investigators have said it is still 'too soon' to make a judgement on what happened based on the information available. It comes as the first pictures of the mangled wreckage emerged from the crash site. 'It looks like the right front and side window were blown out, most probably from inside out,' an unnamed European airline pilot told the Telegraph, indicating that a bomb on board caused the crash. The pilot pointed out that fog could also have set off the alarms, filling the air due to a sudden loss of cabin pressure. A screen grab of data leaked by air industry news site The Aviation Herald showed what appeared to be a break-down of the alerts sent out by the plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), before it lost contact at 00.29GMT. They added that an ‘internal explosion’ seemed to be the most likely explanation, based on the alerts concerning the windows in the cockpit. Meanwhile aviation analyst David Soucie told CNN that the data indicated a fire on board caused the crash, rather than a bomb. 'If there's fire on board the aircraft, in this area which the ACARS indicates, then something was close to the cockpit,' Mr Soucie said. 'It could have been either something mechanical that had failed, a short circuit, or it could have been an incendiary device of some kind as well.' ACARS does not provide a cause of the crash, but Mr Soucie said it was significant that the data was sent over a period of one to two minutes. 'Now if it it was a bomb, the characteristic bomb... would have ruptured the skin of the aircraft,' he said. 'This is not the indication you would have had, because a bomb that would do that would be instantaneous and these reports would not have gone over two minutes like they do.' The analyst added that a fire in the front section of the plane may well have affected the communications equipment. According to the leaked data, smoke alarms in the lavatory behind the cockpit first began sounding at 00.26GMT. Less than a minute later, smoke was also detected in the avionics.
Agency spokesman Sebastien Barthe confirmed the sounding of the smoke alarms 'generally mean the start of a fire,' but insisted that everything is currently 'pure conjecture.' Egyptian media have also reported that divers have found the black box close to the crash site. The black box has yet to be recovered by rescuers but could provide vital clues into what caused the plane to crash just as it entered Egyptian airspace on its journey to Cairo. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 My money is on an incendiary device planted by an airport worker. Which if correct will raise some interesting questions about the advisability of airports hiring people called 'Mo'. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2016-05-22 20:35 |
| #2 Fly by wire aircraft. No mechanical link between flight controls and control surfaces. OOOPSIE!!!! |
| Posted by: Canuckistan sniper 2016-05-22 20:13 |
| #1 Fox mentions the name of passengers that turned up an interesting Google search, as he was raised in a UN camp. Among those killed were Salah Abu Laban, his wife Sahar Qouidar, their son Ghassan Abu Laban and daughter-in-law Reem al-Sebaei |
| Posted by: Thor Lumumba3940 2016-05-22 17:25 |