Twenty years later, a trial is looming for the former boss of the Egyptian company Flash Airlines.
The crash of the Boeing 737 killed 148 people including 135 French people off the coast of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2004. The Paris prosecutor's office requested a trial against Mohamed Nour, formerly head of the company.
On January 3, 2004, the Flash Airlines plane crashed in the Red Sea three minutes after taking off from a seaside resort before crashing off the coast of the city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
All of its 148 passengers and 13 crew members lost their lives.
Among the victims were 135 French passengers.
This is one of the deadliest air accidents involving French people.
The possibility of a terrorist attack was quickly ruled out, thanks to a technical accident.
Dismissed in 2017
On the very day of the tragedy, a judicial investigation was opened in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) but was ultimately dismissed in 2017. The victims' families appealed to the Paris Court of Appeal to request that investigations continue.
It was finally ordered in second instance that the investigation be resumed, in particular in order to obtain explanations from the former chairman of the board of directors of Flash Airlines, Mohamed Nour.
For a long time, the boss of the Egyptian company had ignored summons from French justice.
Finally, in 2021, he was placed under the intermediate status of assisted witness.
Three months later, he was indicted for manslaughter.
Also read 20 years after the Sharm el-Sheik crash: “Only families can understand the pain”
“Mistakes and approximations” of the two pilots
In particular, the fatigue of the employees who worked on the plane on the day of the tragedy, an alleged lack of training and a series of bad decisions attributed to poor working conditions.
For the public prosecutor, the main criminal offenses are “obviously and primarily attributable” to Flash Airlines, which is accused of a lack of training of its pilots and poor working conditions favoring their poor reaction on the day of the accident. .
In its requisitions, signed on December 22, the prosecution noted “numerous failings, approximate calculations and summary analyses” of the two pilots, who died in the crash.
According to him, this would be “the direct cause” of the crash.
As for Flash Airlines, the company had been judicially liquidated and can no longer face criminal liability, like the pilots who died on the day of the tragedy.
What responsibility does Mohamed Nour have?
The prosecution considers that Mohamed Nour, as legal representative of the company, can be tried for involuntary homicide for having contributed to the occurrence of the tragedy, by not having ensured the fatigue of the crew or the quality of their training.
The final decision on a trial rests with the two investigating judges seized of the case.
Mohamed Nour's lawyer did not respond to AFP's requests this Wednesday.
Very involved in the procedure, the families had themselves commissioned experts whose report, published in 2007, had singled out all the actors, including the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC), for not having prohibited flight the company.