The thesis was put forward that the crash of the Egyptian Airlines passenger plane, which made the Paris-Cairo flight in May 2016, was caused by the oxygen mask leaking air and the pilots smoking during the flight.
All 66 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A320 type flight MS804, which crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, 2016, lost their lives. Egyptian authorities claimed at the first stage that the incident was a terrorist attack; The French authorities, on the other hand, stated that they did not reach any findings in this direction and concluded that the plane probably crashed due to a fire in the cockpit.
An expert report on the case in France, which was submitted to the court in Paris last month, was published this week in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. In the 134-page report of the French experts, the findings of six years were put on paper and the factors and probabilities that caused the crash of the plane were listed.
According to the news, on May 16, 2016, a few days before the plane made its last flight, a maintenance officer of EgyptAir had changed the copilot’s oxygen mask. In the report, it was stated that the reason for this could not be determined because Egypt did not cooperate.
After this change, the airflow setting of the copilot’s oxygen mask was in the “emergency” position. It is emphasized that this factor is the first link in the chain of events that led to the crash of the plane.
Speaking to Corriere, an Italian A320 pilot emphasized that the oxygen mask gives air at a higher pressure in the normal setting, and at a higher pressure in the emergency setting. It was also stated in the news that the mask being in the emergency position could cause air leakage.
Data obtained from the cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft numbered MS804 showed that the co-pilot’s oxygen mask supported the thesis that he was leaking air.
The thesis that the fire in the plane was caused by the combination of an air-leaking oxygen mask and a cigarette spark was included in the report, on the grounds that smoking was not prohibited for pilots at Egypt Airways at that time and that “pilots tend to smoke frequently”.
Corriere della Sera, “Egypt Airlines flight MS804, carrying 66 people, crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, 2016, due to a fire in the cockpit, most likely due to the co-pilot’s oxygen mask leaking while the pilot or his assistant was smoking.” he wrote.
The newspaper stated that they applied to Egypt Airways and the Egyptian civil aviation authority to get an opinion on the report, but they could not get a response.
The passengers on the plane were predominantly Egyptian and French citizens. “Since May 2016, we have been trying to find out why we lost loved ones and still no one has said anything official to us,” said Julie Heslouin, who lost her 41-year-old brother Quentin and her 75-year-old father, Pierre, in the incident.
Corriere della Sera wrote that Julie Heslouin and other bereaved persons have long wanted to know the truth, adding: “Perhaps this report can answer some questions.”