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26 Apr 2022
A confidential report of French experts on flight MS804 Paris-Cairo in 2016 with 66 people on board: "Plane crashed in a fire caused by the leak of oxygen"
EgyptAir flight MS804 Paris-Cairo crashed in the Mediterranean on 19 May 2016 with 66 people on board due to a fire that broke out in the cockpit due to the escape of oxygen from the co-pilot's mask - changed 3 days earlier and set to mode "Emergency" - at a time when the commander or FO was probably smoking at 11,278 m AMSL. Six years after that disaster, some of the world's leading experts shed light, perhaps once and for all, on what happened to the A320 of which the Egyptian authorities - responsible for the investigation - have never made known neither a preliminary report nor a definitive one. . A 134-page document - which Corriere della Sera has viewed exclusively - now reconstructs the last moments. The dossier was sent a month ago to the Paris Court of Appeal which is investigating for "manslaughter" because among the victims there are also 12 compatriots.
The route
Flight MS804 takes off from "Charles de Gaulle" in Paris at 11.21 pm on May 18, 2016. At 12.11 am the jet enters the Italian airspace above Livigno, flies over Veneto, then skirts the Balkans and proceeds south. At 2.27 am the Greek controller invites the pilots to get in touch with their Egyptian colleague because the Airbus is entering the airspace of the African country, "but it gets no response," writes the French investigation. At 2.34am the aircraft disappears from the radars of both area control centers after turning first to the left, then immediately to the right and without sounding any alarm. Shortly before the crash, it turns out, the plane sent 7 "dispatches" in 2 seconds: they signal problems with the anti-ice sensors, the cockpit windows, they indicate the presence of smoke in the front bathroom and in the avionics compartment (under the cockpit), the stop to the functioning of 2 systems crucial for flight and wings.
The investigations
On 16 and 17 June, a month later, the 2 "black boxes" are recovered (one records the technical parameters of the flight, the other the audio of the pilots) then sent to France to be examined by the investigative agency Bea, which delivers the results - as established by the rules - to those responsible for the investigation: Cairo. Relations with the Egyptians are problematic. The accident, for them, is an act of terrorism. Paris does not agree: the debris recovered around the impact area excludes the explosion. In autumn 2018, with an unprecedented act, the French judicial police came to the offices of the Bea to collect the data from the "black boxes". To draw up the current report, the experts met 23 times between Aug 2021 and Feb 2022. They put pen to paper that on board that aircraft the pilots tended to smoke a lot (something not forbidden at the time by EgyptAir) and that in previous trips there The plane experienced several technical problems "but none so serious as to require its grounding".
The beginning of the tragedy
On May 16, 2016, a EgyptAir maintenance worker replaced the co-pilot's oxygen mask. The reason is also not clear why Egypt does not cooperate. When putting away the new mask, the attendant leaves the cursor that manages the air flow in the "emergency" position. According to the report, this is the beginning of the chain of events leading to the crash: the Airbus manual writes that in emergency mode "an oxygen leak may occur". This is what happened on board flight MS804. To confirm this are the audio of the pilots.
The traces of oxygen
By separating the soundtracks of one of the black boxes, the "CVR", the experts discover 2 rustles at 2.25 and 24 seconds and at 2.25 and 29 coming from the microphone incorporated in the oxygen mask of the co-pilot who at that moment it is in its compartment. Then 2 more blows, at 2.26 and 11 and at 2.26 and 24. Oxygen itself is not flammable, but promotes combustion. For this reason, immediately after there is a beginning of a fire triggered "by a spark or a flame". The finger is pointed at a lit cigarette, yet another in that aircraft if it is true that 2 months earlier in the cockpit the ashtrays were replaced because they are now too used. The document is unable to establish whether the pilots used a fire extinguisher or not.
The planned checks
"When we enter the cockpit, between the various preliminary checks before taking off, there is also the control of the oxygen flow in the side masks," Daniele Veronelli, commander of A320 and member of the technical department of Anpac (National Association commercial aviation pilots). "A door is lifted and the air flow is tested by pressing a button that protrudes from the compartment. By operating the intercom you can hear the oxygen flowing because each mask is equipped with a microphone ". If the crew is the first to set foot on the plane that day - he continues - "then this type of test is also performed. If, on the other hand, one takes over from colleagues, the check is not foreseen, but it does not detract from the fact that this is done anyway, it only takes a few seconds ".
The alarms
Are there any signs of oxygen on board? "When the levels drop, on one of the screens in front of the pilots the indication of the amount of oxygen turns orange. If you are on the ground you do not take off, if you are in flight you have to decide whether to continue or divert to the nearest airport ". The masks have a minimum of 15 minutes of autonomy. "There is a lever: if it is in the normal position, the oxygen flow is on demand. If, on the other hand, it is in the "emergency" position then this releases the air at a higher pressure to throw out the fumes that could enter in the event of a fire or smoke on board.
The tiredness of the pilots
In the document, among many things, there is a passage on the pilots. Between 01.01 and 1.46 at night - when the aircraft passes between the coast of Croatia and over Athens, Greece - the technicians note, hearing the black boxes, that the commander and FO show signs of fatigue. "A yawn is clearly audible at 1.01 and 53 seconds", it reads. Twelve minutes later "captain and FO clearly express that they both feel tired from this night flight and from lack of sleep." Same concept repeated at 1.46. But the documents compiled, the experts explain, "indicate that rest hours have been respected for both".
The reactions
The Egyptian CAA and EgyptAir did not respond to the Courier's questions. ICAO, the UN civil aviation agency, explains that it has not received any final reports from Cairo. Bea, the French investigative agency, confirms the position expressed in 2018: for them the most probable hypothesis remains "a fire that broke out in the cockpit during the cruise phase which led to the loss of control of the jet". "We have been wanting to understand why we have lost loved ones since May 2016," says Julie Heslouin over the phone, who lost her brother Quentin, 41, and her father Pierre, 75, on the phone. he has long wanted the truth. This document could perhaps provide the answers.
Last edited by A0283; 27th Apr 2022 at 13:47.