Luxor4u

I've often read....occasionally use it myself.....the expression "losing the plot"

Now, day in, day out, on L4U....I'm witnessing it!

Latest "developments"......

The head of Egypt's state-run provider of air navigation services says that EgyptAir flight 804 did not swerve or lose altitude before it disappeared off radar, challenging an earlier account by Greece's defence minister.

Ehab Azmy, head of the National Air Navigation Services Company, told The Associated Press news agency on Monday that in the minutes before the plane disappeared it was flying at its normal altitude of 37,000 feet, according to the radar reading.

He said: "That fact degrades what the Greeks are saying about aircraft suddenly losing altitude before it vanished from radar."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/e ... 00474.html

The pilot of the doomed EgyptAir flight spoke to air traffic control in Egypt for several minutes just before the plane crashed, a French television station has claimed.

M6’s story, quoting unnamed French aviation officials, was not confirmed by the French air accident investigation agency, the BEA.

No such information had been passed by the Egyptian authorities to three BEA investigators who had flown to Cairo to take part in the official inquiry, the agency said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 41936.html

The French are reporting that one of their ships has recovered a Flight Recorder box.

Horus wrote:The French are reporting that one of their ships has recovered a Flight Recorder box.

I read that they have picked up a signal. It will take a while to locate and lift the box from the floor of the sea. But it is a step in the right direction.

Portuguese tv this morning had two "boxes" in small tanks of water.

MSN is now reporting

"The doomed EgyptAir plane which crashed killing all 66 on board made three emergency landings in the 24 hours before the tragedy, according to reports.

The plane, an Airbus A320, signalled anomalies between May 18 and 19 while taking off airports on three occasions, AirLive reports.

Inspectors are then said to have carried out a technical audit on the plane, each time giving it permission to take off.

Yesterday the Egyptian investigation committee said the search for the black boxes was intensifying ahead of the expected arrival of another vessel from Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search to help retrieve the devices."

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/egy ... spartandhp

The Telegraph gives more detail:

"The doomed EgyptAir plane that plunged into the Mediterranean last month with the loss of 66 lives was forced three times to turn around after taking off and return to three different airports in the 24 hours preceding the crash, reports say.

The Airbus A320’s warning systems signalled anomalies on board three times during the plane’s six rotations - between Asmara in Eritrea, Cairo, and Tunis - in the 24 hours before it disappeared on its final flight, according to French media.

But each time when it returned to the airport it had just taken off from, it was quickly allowed to leave again after inspectors carried out a technical audit and found nothing amiss, the reports said.

EgyptAir’s chairman however denied the claims.

"For me it is not true," Safwat Musallam said on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meeting in Dublin.

He said flight MS804 had not experienced any maintenance issues before departure and that the plane was "normal".

"We fully trust the aircraft and the pilot," said Mr Musallam.

The search zone for the jet has now been narrowed to two kilometres (1.24 miles), an Egyptian source on the investigation committee said on Thursday.

But it will be at least a week before a specialist vessel carrying robots able to dive to 3,000 metres will arrive to help retrieve the devices in the crash area that lies around 180 miles north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06 ... ral-emerg/

See also the embedded video at http://www.onenewspage.co.uk/n/Front+Pa ... et-had.htm

Egyptair: no 24 hours before the crash alerts

A source close to the investigation into the crash of an EgyptAir Airbus A320 on 19 May in the Mediterranean denied today that a series of alerts was issued by the aircraft in the 24 hours before her disappearance at sea, as reported by the media yesterday in France. "It is not true, as some have told french media that Acars messages signaling the presence of smoke were sent to three successive occasions during the flights from the aircraft to Asmara in Eritrea, and Tunis and its departure from Cairo, "said the investigator. Acars is an embedded communications system that sends regular flight data from the device to the operating company. The radius of the search area flight recorder has been reduced from five to two kilometers after a signal has been detected by a French vessel, the source said. In Paris, the French Transport Minister Alain Vidal, has said this morning that it would take eight days before the black boxes could be retrieved.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2016/ ... nquete.php

Does anyone have any opinions on the effect this tragedy will have on air travel to Egypt?

Egypt seemed quite quick to state that they suspected a terrorist act.Is that a good thing from the Egyptian point of view?i.e, will call into play the security issues concerning other countries airports around the world,and indicate that they were maybe a bit lax and possibly no different from Sharm-El-Sheikh?so why stop flights to THAT airport?

Or what about the issue of "technical"failure within the plane?
Could that lead to the entire Egyptair stock of planes being "grounded"for a period of time for safety checks?
Would that be feasible?Could people lose confidence in flying with Egyptair?

I would assume that travel to the country will be impacted one way or another,no-matter the cause.

Are there any opinions on what the impact will be?

It doesn't matter where or with whom one travels, if it's your time to go, You go.
Listen to the surgeon on Desert Island Discs right now, he goes everywhere where people die daily...

Heard it Who, and what an incredibly kind, brave, man he is.

Dr David Nott, quite a humble guy..
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/lon ... 32272.html
Ps: He also chose some nice toones....

Scottishtourist wrote:Does anyone have any opinions on the effect this tragedy will have on air travel to Egypt?

Very little

Egypt seemed quite quick to state that they suspected a terrorist act.Is that a good thing from the Egyptian point of view?i.e, will call into play the security issues concerning other countries airports around the world,and indicate that they were maybe a bit lax and possibly no different from Sharm-El-Sheikh?so why stop flights to THAT airport?

Or what about the issue of "technical"failure within the plane?
Could that lead to the entire Egyptair stock of planes being "grounded"for a period of time for safety checks?
Would that be feasible?Could people lose confidence in flying with Egyptair?

I doubt it's going to be a design fault requiring the grounding of Egypt Air a320 fleet if it's a grounding requirement it would involve all a320 worldwide

I would assume that travel to the country will be impacted one way or another,no-matter the cause.

Are there any opinions on what the impact will be?

no