'No attack' on crash jet
Bodies recovered from an Egyptian charter plane that crashed on Saturday killing all 148 people on board bore no traces of burns indicating there was no explosion aboard the aircraft, a top French Foreign Ministry official said today.
Renaud Muselier, the ministry’s secretary of state, told French media that everything would be done to obtain “clear and precise” reasons for the crash off the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
Most of the victims were French.
“In less than 50 seconds, the plane had a major problem, did a nose dive and crashed into the sea,” said Renaud Muselier of the crash of Flash Airlines flight FSH604.
“There are no traces of burns” on the bodies recovered, Muselier told France-Info radio after returning from a brief trip to the site of the crash. He said the finding confirmed eye witnesses’ accounts that no explosion was seen.
“There is no reason to believe there was an attack,” he said, adding that he “thinks very sincerely that this was an accident”.
“We’re going to do everything to get clear and precise answers in total transparence” on the cause of the crash that left 133 French citizens dead, Muselier said.
“There is clearly a weak link in the chain and we are going to have to find the one at fault,” he said.
Egyptian officials said the 11-year-old Boeing 737 jet checked out normally before the flight. But Swiss aviation authorities said they had banned Flash, a private Cairo-based carrier, over technical worries.
