From this morning’s paper:
“It emerged yesterday that one woman passenger – Fatima --- (it gives the name), 47 – made two phone calls to her nephew. The first said there was a problem during taxiing before takeoff. The second, as it was crashing, described another problem during the brief flight. Mohamed ----, of Moroccan origin, said: “She said: ‘Something’s happening to the flight.’ Then there were screams from the air hostess standing next to her and the line cut.”
I have two separate reactions to reading something like this on page one of a usually reputable newspaper. Firstly, the story is so obviously inaccurate – almost certainly a story made up on the fly because the ‘ear witness’ had a microphone thrust in front of his nose, (let’s be charitable - possibly while he was in a state of high emotion). But secondly, has it occurred to anyone that if Mohamed ----’s story is true, the reason for the crash might be the fact that his dead aunt
was using her mobile phone during takeoff?
I flew on a domestic flight in Egypt some years ago (not with the company concerned in this tragic accident). Late in the approach into Cairo, passing 1500’ at my guess, I was gob-smacked at the number of people sitting around me who pulled out their trusty mobile phones to tell their wives/drivers their ETA. As for the seemingly ridiculous statement from Mohamed --- that there ‘were screams from the air hostess
standing next to’ his aunt immediately after takeoff, maybe that’s not quite as silly as it first sounds, for on the same flight I took, we commenced the takeoff with a flight attendant standing in the aisle at Row 11 taking photographs of a honeymooning couple. When she realised the aircraft was taking off, she made a run for her seat at the forward door. She was on all fours ‘climbing’ uphill, with the aircraft airborne and the floor at around 15 degrees nose up, by the time she was dragged into her seat by her colleague.