Flash Airlines

Flash Airlines was a private Airline company Egyptian with low costs. It is sadly famous because of the crash landing of the one of its Boeing 737 close to Charm el-Cheikh in Egypt making 148 victims, primarily French tourists. See Flight Flash Airlines FSH 604

Flash Airlines had domiciled with the Cairo in Egypt and belonged to the company of tourism Flash Group. The company had two Boeing 737 manufactured in 1993 and that it used for flights Charter with international (in particular with the France and other European countries) and in Egypt. The Flash Airlines company was closed little of time after the crash landing of the January 3rd 2004.

Chronology

  • 2000 : Creation of the company at low Flash Airlines cost, subsidiary of Flash Turn.

  • 2001 : Incident implying plane SU-ZCF, then held by Mediterranean Airlines: a wing of the plane is hung by a vehicle in track.
  • 2001, July 22nd: Plane SU-ZCF is rented by Flash Airlines. Even registration that under Heliopolis Airlines: SU-ZCF.
  • 2002 February 16th: Flash Airlines rents with ILFC the plane registered SU-ZCD.
  • 2002, April 27th: Control SU-ZCD of the company by the OFAC. 11 indexed anomalies (6 level 3,2 level 2). 4 corrected before the authorization of redécollage. Qualified low register gaps are observed: missing documents of navigation, calculations of the fuel level not established according to the international standards, indication of the fire exits out of use, failures in the maintenance of the landing gear, as well as power unit and orders of vol. the OFAC then requires the correction of these problems before any plane of the company does not land again in Suisse.
  • 2002, August 1st: Inspection SAFA of the SU-ZCF by the Norwegian authorities with Oslo 5 indexed anomalies (2 level 1,3 level 2). Information with the Egyptian authority.
  • 2002, October 11th: During a new control operated on another plane of the company, the SU-ZCF, the OFAC note on this apparatus the same concern as on the other. 14 indexed anomalies (7 level 3,2 level 2,5 level 1) 7 corrections carried out before takeoff (Source: official statement of the DGAC). The OFAC prevents that the planes of Flash Airlines will be able to land in Switzerland only if the Egyptian authorities attest irreproachable state of the apparatuses. The EAC is prevented on October 15th by the OFAC. The following day, the EAC warns the European countries. October 22nd, the Egyptian authorities are prevented prohibition.
  • 2002, October 27th: During flight FSH 520, apparatus SU-ZCD connecting Charm el-Cheikh to Bologna makes an emergency stopover with the airport of Athens. According to a witness, there would have been an explosion in the engine, which would have taken fire. Its engine is changed by Olympic Airways.
  • 2002, at the beginning of November: The Polish office of civil aviation suspends the license of Flash Airlines until June 2003 following the bad technical state of the planes of this company.
  • 2002, of the November 4th to the December 20th: the Boeing SU-ZCF is revised in Norway by Braathens with Stavanger, in Norway. The engines are not the subject of this revision.
  • 2002, December 30th: Control of an apparatus of the Flash Airlines company by the ENAC (Graft Nazionale per Installs it Civil, are equivalent Italian of DGAC.
  • 2003, January 4th: during a flight Rome - Le Bourget, a plane of Flash Airlines (not revealed registration) request to land in urgency in Geneva, thanks to the authorization of the OFAC. It sets out again the following day for Le Bourget. Cause: weather or technical problem.
  • 2003, of the January 2nd to the January 16th: The company is inspected by the Egyptiennes authorities. 27 failures with safety are raised. For example: no the program of drive, the crew does not use a Checklist on safety.
  • 2003, January: Boeing SU-ZCF undergone a revision engine by the SNECMA Morocco engine services with the Morocco. An engine of replacement is rented and assembled. The old engine is posed again on the plane in this same month.
  • 2003, from January to February: revision of apparatus SU-ZCD by Braathens in Norway.
  • 2003, March: apparatus SU-ZCF receives a new engine installed by the SNECMA Morocco engine services, with the Morocco.
  • 2003, June 20th: Boeing SU-ZCD is controlled with Warsaw. No the noted major anomaly.
  • 2003, October 15th: Control plane SU-ZCD with Lyon. Some problems are noted, including the one abnormal wear of a tire: 3 indexed anomalies (2 level 2,1 level 1).
  • 2003, October 22nd: control plane SU-ZCF with Toulouse. Nothing abnormal. However, only 20 points are checked on 53, including 10 on the documentation of the appliance and 10 on its external general aspect.
  • 2003, November 8th: apparatus SU-ZCD is controlled with Marseilles. It is noted that the worn tire was changed.
  • 2003, December 12th: apparatus SU-ZCF is controlled by the engineering team of Flash Airlines. This checking consists of a visual monitoring as well as an operational control.
  • 2004, January 2nd: apparatus SU-ZCF carries out 4 rotations: Charm el-Cheikh - Turin, Turin - Charm el-Cheikh, and after midday: Charm el-Cheikh - Venice, Venice - Charm el-Cheikh (departure with 23:35).
  • 2004, January 3rd: 4:45 (local time) is 2:45 GMT: accident of Boeing SU-ZCF. It is the January 3rd 2004 which a Boeing 737 pertaining to the airline company Égyptienne Flash Airlines, accomplishing a flight charter, and transporting 148 passengers whose 133 French and team members, damages in Red Sea, with ten kilometers coasts, shortly after its takeoff of the airport of the seaside resort of Charm el-Cheikh. Despite everything, the other apparatus of the company, also chartered by FRAM, registered SU-ZCD, carries out a rotation: it arrives at the airport of Lyon Saint Exupéry at 9:00 (French hour) and sets out again for Hurghada with 79 passengers with 10:05 (French hour), which leaves little time for a thorough control.
  • 2004, January 5th: The company, which was to accomplish two flights per week between Egypt and Spain during the Winter 2003 - 2004 (Monday, connection Cairo-Barcelona-Madrid-Louxor; Friday, connection Cairo-Barcelona-Madrid-Aswan) cancels the flight of Monday January 5th 2006 and prevents of them the centers of operations of the airports of Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat.

Sur the course of these planes:

  • Chronology of the SU-ZCD: planespotters.net. However the WWW.airfleets.com site offers a chronology comprising some differences with that used.
  • Chronology of the SU-ZCF: Airfleets.net. The www.planespotters.com site offers some differences in its chronologie.

Flash Airlines and the air security

Doubts weigh on this company as for the safety of its passengers. Certain elements indicate that Flash Airlines was not always serious on the matter:

  • the controls carried out by the OFAC in 2002.
  • the reaction of the chief controls of Flash Airlines the January 4th 2004, after the revelation which an fire-engine had occurred in 2002, obliging an apparatus to land urgently with Athens: “It is normal (...), it can have a fire of engine there during a flight”.
  • the pilot: the February 13rd 2003, it entered the company, underwent a drive on simulator, and, whereas its weak experiment of the apparatus (which it had hitherto controlled only in one simulator) was to lead it to only be a copilot, it becomes directly pilot. It starts to steal in May or June 2003. In November 2003, the director of the Operations of Airline Flash resigns, in particular because he was opposed to this way of doing. At the time of the Vol Flash Airlines FSH 604, the commander carried out only 474 hours of flight on a Boeing 737, which is little.
  • Of multiple testimonys of passengers on the state of the interior of the plane, in particular that of the director of the airport of Angers: the apparatus was worn, the used cases of help, the yellowed seats, and the apparatus where this person has to be posed with Milan, for lack of fuel.
  • Absence of a specialist electrician in the company.

The inspections, apart from those carried out in Switzerland, were not always negative for the company. However, for lack of time, the checks can be surface, like the October 22nd 2003 with Toulouse for the apparatus registered SU-ZCF.

However, Flash Airlines carried out a certain number of repairs in 2002 and 2003, not neglecting always safety:

  • 2002, of the November 4th to the December 20th: the Boeing SU-ZCF is revised in Norway by Braathens with Stavanger, in Norway.
  • 2003, January: Boeing SU-ZCF undergone a revision engine by the SNECMA Morocco engine services. An engine of replacement is rented and assembled. The old engine then went up on the plane, always in January.
  • 2003, from January to February: revision of apparatus SU-ZCD by Braathens.
  • 2003, March: apparatus SU-ZCF receives a new engine installed by the SNECMA Morocco engine services.

External bonds

Protagonists
  • Site of Group Flash, owner of Flash Airlines
  • Facsimiled banner page of Internet site of Flash Airlines.
  • Site of victims' families of this air crash landing
  • Site of information to the families of the victims

----Official pages

  • Site of topicality of the BEA. See the heading: Accident of a Boeing 737 on January 3rd, 2004 with Charm-el-Sheik.
  • Press release of the BEA containing a report/ratio about research operations at sea.
  • Vidéo showing one of limp black resting at the sea-bed. On the site of the BEA.
  • virtual Reconstitution of the accident. On the site of the BEA.
  • Page of the DGAC
  • Press release of the OFAC (federal Office of the civil aviation) of January 5th, 2004 announcing prohibition made at Flash Airlines attend the Swiss airspace.
  • the embassy of France in Egypt: page on the crash landing.
  • Page of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
  • Site of the ministry for the equipment: Page 1 Page 2
  • Press releases of the Minister for justice.
  • Site of the ministry for transport: Page 1 Page 2
  • : Site of French the Prime Minister

----Planes

  • Career of plane SU-ZCD
  • Photographs of the SU-ZCD
  • Information on plane SU-ZCF (implied in the crash landing), its career.
  • Photographs of the plane implied in catastrophe (SU-ZCF). In English.
  • Photographs of the plane implied in crash landing (SU-ZCF). In English.
  • Information about apparatus SU-ZCF. In English.
  • Information on plane SU-ZCF, its career.

----Analyzes and comments

  • Some analyzes on Nuisances-aeriennes.com

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