EgyptAir Flight 843

Accident summary

Flight 843 took off from Cairo International Airport on the afternoon of 7 May 2002 to Tunis Carthage International Airport in Tunis, Tunisia. The passengers consisted of 27 Egyptians, 16 Tunisians, 3 Algerians, 3 Jordanians, and 2 Britons. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-566. The flight crew members were 34-year-old Captain Ashraf Abdel-Aal (Arabic: أشرف عبدالعال) and 28-year-old First Officer Khaled Odeh (Arabic: خالد عودة).

The plane was flying in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) due to fog, rain and blowing sand on approach to runway 11 of Tunis-Carthage Airport. The aircraft crashed atop a hill in the Nahli area in the north of Tunis. The aircraft came to rest at an elevation of 750 ft above sea level and 4 mi from the airport. Of the 6 crew and 56 passengers on board, 3 crew members (both flight crew members and one flight attendant) and 11 passengers were killed in the crash. The investigation found the Minimum safe altitude warning device at Tunis-Carthage did not cover the approach for Runway 11, and recommended studying ways to improve the volume of sky covered by the device in order to cover approaches to all the runways. The cause of the crash was a controlled flight into terrain.

The plane broke into two halves and the back of the plane caught fire. As a result, most of the victims were sitting in the back of the plane. Rescue teams headed to the crash area to rescue the injured passengers and retrieve the bodies of those killed. Rescue workers reported having difficulty reaching the site of the crash in the rough terrain.

Survivor accounts

One of the survivors said that "the plane had left Egypt normally, but when we entered the Tunisian airspace we found an unusual climatic situation that I had not seen since the year. And we stayed for about half an hour between the fog and could not see the surface of the earth at all," adding that "while the pilot was preparing to land at the airport in Tunisia, the plane suddenly crashed into the mountain, and that maybe something wrong from the pilot and something from the plane."

Aftermath

After the accident, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to assist authorities in Tunisia with their investigation. The team included representatives from Boeing and General Electric Engines.

References

References

1. (7 May 2002). "EgyptAir plane crashes near Tunis". BBC.
2. (May 2004). "Investigation Report Concerning the Accident on 7 May 2002 in Tunis Involving a Boeing 737-500, with Registration SU-GBI, Operated by EgyptAir". Tunisian Republic, Ministry of Communication Technologies and Transport.
3. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-566 SU-GBI Tunis-Carthage Airport (TUN)". [[Flight Safety Foundation]].
4. (8 May 2002). "Probe into EgyptAir jet disaster". Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
5. (15 May 2002). "EgyptAir crashes again". Al-Ahram Weekly Online.
6. (8 May 2002). "Egyptian Plane Crashes, Killing At Least 20". The New York Times.
7. (10 May 2002). "تونس تنفي أن يكون قائد الطائرة المصرية المنكوبة أرسل نداء استغاثة وتقول إنه هبط بطريقة تخالف المعايير المعمول بها".
8. (7 May 2002). "NTSB News Release: NTSB Sends Investigators to Tunisia to Assist in EgyptAir Investigation". National Transportation Safety Board.