Egyptian Charter Crashes Into Red Sea, 148 Killed

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Egyptian Charter Crashes Into Red Sea, 148 Killed

CAIRO, January 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An Egyptian charter plane, bound for Paris, has crashed into the Red Sea shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, killing 148 people on board, reported Egypt’s official news agency, MENA.

The Boeing 737, operated by the Egyptian private company Air Flash, disappeared from radar screen minutes after it had taken off at 5:00 (3:00 GMT), airport officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

They added that the plane was carrying 135 passengers, including 129 French tourists, and six Egyptians as well as 13 crew members.

Al-Jazzeera satellite channel said the plane was en route from Sharm El-Sheikh to a Cairo transit and then to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris.

The plane’s wreckage is said to have been spotted in the sea, as Egyptian aviation officials said the crash was probably an accident, the BBC News Online reported.

A U.K. Government spokesman told the BBC that the Prime Minister Tony Blair was safe and well.

He has been on a family holiday in the Sharm El-Sheikh since before Christmas.

Comment:

A very unfortunate incident of innocent lives being lost. Remains to be seen who where the blame will be placed.

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These planes have been crashing several times in 2003.

And in the same region.

Boeing 737 and 727 have had technical problems already on take off on these types of run ways.

Last time egyptian plane crashed Boeing claimed the pilot commited suicide and killed all his passengers. Yes very dubious claim i know.

What will boeing say now! assuming it was a technical problem.

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The ‘Black Box’ seems to have to been found, so we will find out what happened that led to the crash.

**Crews Find Egypt Plane Crash ‘Black Box’ **](Yahoo News: Latest and Breaking News, Headlines, Live Updates, and More)

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^ maybe we would soon know what went wrong.

How sad..

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‘Egypt crash was a terror strike’

AFP MONDAY, JANUARY 05, 2004 06:40:11 PM ]

CAIRO : A man claiming to represent an Islamist group in Yemen said Monday the Egyptian charter plane that crashed at the weekend was brought down in an “attack” by his group, in an anonymous telephone call to AFP.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim by the caller who spoke Arabic with an Egyptian accent.

The man, who said he was an Egyptian calling from Cairo , said he represented a group called Ansar el-Haq, the Apostles of Truth, which he said carried out an attack that brought down the plane.

Ansar el-Haq is based in Yemen , he said, although nothing is known of the group.

A Boeing 737 operated by a Cairo-based charter firm, Flash Airways, plunged into the Red Sea on Saturday shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people aboard, mainly French holidaymakers.

Egypt has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash and pointed to an unspecified technical fault. While French officials declined to rule out any cause, they said it appeared to have been a classic accident on take-off.

**The caller also warned that his group would stage an attack “soon” against Air France "if France does not go back on its decision to ban the Islamic headscarf in state schools. **

Yemen is a stronghold of the Islamic militant group Al-Qaeda, headed by fugitive Osama bin Laden.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/406044.cms

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interesting ...

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batameez, do you support it?