Egyptian Charter Jet Crashes, Killing All 148 People Aboard

A charter jet packed with French tourists plummeted into the Red Sea off this lively beach resort Saturday, killing all 148 people on board. French and Egyptian officials said the crash apparently was caused by mechanical trouble, not terrorism.

The Boeing 737 owned by Egyptian-based Flash Airlines had just taken off at 5 a.m. when the pilot apparently tried to turn back to shore abruptly and the plane pitched into the deep, shark-infested Strait of Tiran. Except for one Japanese, one Moroccan and 13 Egyptian crew members, all the people on board were French, authorities said.

The reason for the crash remained unconfirmed Saturday night as searchers hunted the waters for the flight data and voice recorders. The crew didn’t put out a distress call, airport officials said, and other planes took off and landed smoothly on the typically clear morning in this sun-washed tip of the Sinai desert.

The aircraft vanished from the radar a few minutes after taking flight. “There was a problem at takeoff,” France’s deputy transportation minister, Dominique Bussereau, told reporters at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. “It tried to turn back and ... it crashed.”

During a holiday season in which travelers’ nerves were already jangled and numerous flights, including some originating in France, have been canceled for fear they might be attacked, Saturday’s crash raised immediate worries about terrorism.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was vacationing with his family in Sharm el Sheik at the time of the crash. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a frequent visitor to this coastal haven, was to visit Blair here to discuss Middle East peace prospects.

Egyptian and French officials were quick to emphasize that there was no reason to suspect that the plane had been attacked, and France wasn’t expected to open a counter-terrorism inquiry.

The crash “is absolutely not the result of a terror act,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters, “but is linked to a technical failure of the plane.”

Radar images indicate that the plane took flight and turned left as normal, then suddenly straightened out, turned right and tumbled into the sea. The last communication with the plane was at 5,300 feet.

“There was a malfunction that made it difficult for the crew to save the plane,” Civil Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafeeq told Egyptian television.

The plane had arrived overnight from Venice, bringing Italian tourists. It reloaded Saturday with the departing French vacationers and was headed for Cairo to change crews before flying to Paris. The jet was serviced in Norway, and no mechanical problems had been found during inspections before takeoff.

On Saturday, sodden suitcases and body parts bobbed in the water a few miles from shore along with shoes, life preservers and shards of the plane. The jet fell into the water between Egypt and Saudi Arabia over a deep underwater crevice thick with sharks.

Vacationers watched solemnly from the shore as military helicopters hovered low over the sea. Boats from nearby diving companies flocked to join the military boats in their search. But blood clouded the water because sharks were eating the bodies, Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency reported. By Saturday afternoon, officials from the charter company said they weren’t expecting to find any survivors.

“There’s lots of personal stuff, small bags and toys,” a rescue worker told Reuters. “We have collected very small pieces of the plane, but the body of the plane has sunk.”

France dispatched a top diplomat and police officers who specialize in identifying corpses to work with Egyptian authorities “to shed light as quickly as possible on this catastrophe that has plunged our country into mourning,” French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said in Paris.

French prosecutors also opened an “involuntary homicide” investigation, a routine step to speed cooperation with Egypt, French officials said.

“Everything will be done in coordination with the Egyptian authorities in order to clarify the causes of the crash,” Jean-Louis Nadal, the chief prosecutor in Paris, said at a news conference at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

At Egypt’s request, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will also send an investigator.

In Paris, friends and family had turned up at De Gaulle Airport to pick up the homecoming vacationers. Television footage showed them looking up at information screens showing that the flight was delayed, then bursting into tears, hugging or simply staring in shock as news of the crash spread. Police and airport personnel bused them to an airport hotel, where doctors and counselors were waiting.

Most of the French families had flown to Cairo by Saturday night and were expected to arrive in Sharm el Sheik this morning in hopes of identifying any remains. A grim-faced Raffarin rushed to the airport in Paris to console the families.

“I would like to say that I am personally overwhelmed by this tragedy,” the prime minister said as he arrived. “The whole of the nation is touched by this dramatic accident.”

Most of the passengers were members of a group tour organized by FRAM, one of France’s largest travel operators. FRAM said it had booked 125 people -- mostly families or groups of friends -- on the flight. Some were children.

In Cairo, relatives of missing crew members crowded the offices of Flash Airlines to demand information about their kin. The pilot, Khidr Abdallah, was in his mid-40s, “a very competent pilot with many years’ experience,” said another Flash Airlines pilot who asked not to be named.

A man entered the office to ask about his daughter, a 30-year-old flight attendant, Associated Press reported. He came back outside supported by relatives. “Samia, Samia,” he cried. Next to him, his wife screamed, “My daughter, my daughter.”

With its mild, sunny days, spectacular sea diving and polished oceanside hotels, Sharm el Sheik is a popular wintertime getaway increasingly favored by Europeans. The number of French visitors to Egypt increased 10% last year compared with 2002, according to a spokesman for the Egyptian Tourism Office in Paris quoted by Agence France-Presse on Saturday.

“This is awful for Sharm el Sheik,” fretted Ahmad Mahmoud Abdallah, 32, who works at a bazaar on Naama Bay, where the plane crashed.

“Our tourism has just started to pick up. Now the tourists are going to get scared again and we will lose our livelihood.”

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Zayan reported from Sharm el Sheik, Stack from Jerusalem and Rotella from Paris. Times staff writer Achrene Sicakyuz in Paris also contributed to this report.