French experts were to deploy special equipment yesterday to seek to recover bodies, wreckage and flight data recorders from the Red Sea following the crash of an Egyptian charter plane in which 148 people died, most of them French tourists.
The Egyptian charter plane plunged into the Red Sea shortly after take-off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh early Saturday, killing all 148 people on board.
The crash, which France said had killed entire families, came as the US and Britain were on a heightened air security alert for fear that an airliner could be used for a 9/11-style terror attack.
PHOTO: AP
But both French and Egyptian officials said there was nothing to indicate that the loss of the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 was anything but an accident.
"The incident is absolutely not the result of a terrorist act, but is linked to a technical failure of the plane," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.
A tourism industry official said he was worried foreigners might cancel travel plans to Egypt during the peak season, even if the crash turns out to be an accident.
State television showed Egyptian air force planes, navy ships and a helicopter searching the sea.
By late evening, rescue workers had recovered remains of the bodies of six people, according to French junior foreign minister Renaud Muselier, who was dispatched to Egypt by President Jacques Chirac.
Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafik said rescue workers had also recovered bits of plane wreckage, while local television showed pictures of debris floating in the sea, including tattered, bright yellow life-jackets.
A hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh became the focus of anger and heart-rending grief when it was turned into a morgue for some of those who died.
"They tell us there are only pieces of flesh placed inside and that we will not be able to identify anyone," said one of the relatives, Hatem al-Qaliubi.
"But we want to enter. Maybe we will be able to identify something," she shouted as women sobbed in front of the police.
Flight 604 to Paris via Cairo disappeared from radar screens at 4:44 am, minutes after taking off from the popular resort on the southern tip of the Sinai desert.
"The plane had a problem at take-off and then tried to turn around, and it was at that moment that it apparently crashed," junior French transport minister Dominique Bussereau said.
Radar readings showed that the doomed charter flight climbed to 1,500m after take-off and made a planned left turn before engaging in an unusual manoeuvre and plunging into the sea, Shafik said.
Civil aviation officials said there were 133 French tourists on board, as well as one Japanese and a Moroccan, both women. The remainder comprised the Egyptian crew flying the plane and a relief crew.
France was sending an array of specialist search equipment to the Red Sea area including a sea patrol plane. The French Defence Ministry also decided to fly in an Achille robot, specialized in submarine searches, the Prime Minister's office said in a statement.
The frigate Tourville, complete with sophisticated sonar equipment, was also expected to arrive late Monday, the statement continued.
French civil aviation accident enquiry specialists and diving teams, based in Djibouti, were also expected to be in place on Sunday.
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