Pilot’s lit cigarette sparked fire that caused 2016 EgyptAir crash and killed 66: Report
India Today
An EgyptAir plane crashed and all 66 people onboard died in May 2016. Now, a new investigation reveals that the crash occurred after the pilot's lit cigarette sparked a fire in the cockpit.
In 2016, an EgyptAir flight crashed and all 66 people onboard died. Now, a report by French aviation experts has claimed that the accident occurred after the pilot’s lit cigarette caused a cockpit fire.
The 134-page report states that the pilot of the MS804 lit a cigarette in the cockpit, due to which oxygen leaking from an emergency mask combusted.
As per the report, Egyptian pilots regularly smoked in the cockpit and the practice was not banned by the airline in 2016. The report has been sent to the Court of Appeal in Paris.
In May 2016, the Airbus A320 was on its way from Paris to Cairo when it crashed into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, near the island of Crete, under mysterious circumstances.
Among the dead were 40 Egyptians, 15 French nationals, two Iraqis, two Canadians and one passenger each from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
The plane was flying at 37,000 feet and disappeared about 130 nautical miles off the Greek island of Karpathos.
After the crash, a major search operation was launched and the plane’s black box was found near Greece in the ocean.
