CAIRO: Egypt will publish Saturday its final report into the January 2004 crash of a Flash Airline flight near the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh that left 148 people dead, the civil aviation ministry said. Among the passengers aboard the Boeing 737 were 134 French holidaymakers, and a representative of the victims families has said that the report will be a whitewash of the crew s actions. The press has already said that the report will blame failures on the automatic pilot and the guidance systems. The shortage of time did not allow the pilot to remedy the problem, the long-delayed report supposedly says. Chief Egyptian investigator Shaker Qelada already said at the end of last year that the pilot himself was not at fault, and that the crash had been caused by technical failures. But according to unconfirmed reports, French and American experts who have collaborated in the investigation disagree. They reportedly blame the pilot, a former Egyptian air force ace with only limited training on civilian aircraft. After takeoff, the plane turned right instead of left, and the pilot failed to make the necessary correction because of insufficient time, state news agency MENA reported. The flight crashed only three minutes after takeoff. Marc Chernet, head of the group defending the interests of the victims families, said in Cairo that he would present a counter report. From what we have been able to find out, the (Egyptian) report is going to exonerate the crew of responsibility and rule that a technical failure was the cause, he said. AFP
Egypt to publish report on Sharm El-Sheikh air crash
