On January 3, 2004, a Boeing 737 of the Egyptian charter company Flash Airlines crashes at sea, a few minutes after take off, costing the lives of 148 people.
Read alsoSharm el-Sheikh crash in 2004: the former boss of the Egyptian company Flash Airlines indicted in Paris
Why are we talking about this ?
Eighteen years after the crash of Flash Airlines flight 604, Mohamed Nour, legal representative of this low-cost company, since liquidated, was indicted.
This is the first indictment in this case.
According to information from the
Parisian
, confirmed in
Le Figaro
, he was indicted for “
involuntary homicides
” by a Parisian examining magistrate.
He had been placed under the status of assisted witness in September, but had not responded to summons from French justice.
What happened ?
Saturday January 3, 2004 at 4:44 am, flight FSH 604 no longer responded.
The Boeing which took off two minutes earlier from the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh crashed in the Red Sea, off the Egyptian coast.
The accident claimed the lives of 148 people on board, including 135 tourists - 134 French and one Moroccan - and 13 crew members.
He had arrived from Venice (Italy) at 3:30 am.
Very quickly, the Egyptian Minister of Aviation dismissed the track of the terrorist attack and looked for a technical incident.
An investigation is opened by the Bobigny prosecutor's office.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Renaud Muselier, went there in the evening and France sent a plane, a frigate and a submarine robot.
How has the investigation evolved?
Renaud Muselier in turn dismisses the thesis of the attack on January 5. That of the accident is privileged, but an anonymous call claims an attack by a mysterious Yemeni Islamist organization called
Ansar el-Haq.
The Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST) deems it to be of little credibility.
Le Figaro
will then affirm that the pilot would have badly engaged the autopilot, and will reveal in addition to pilot - experienced - and a co-pilot - little trained - a third man was in the cockpit who should have taken over during the flight of one of the pilots.
Differences will then appear between the French investigators on the responsibility of the pilot in the accident. In a report submitted in 2009, they blamed the crew's lack of experience and training, as well as a lack of synergy between the two men. In January 2008, a first expert opinion estimated that the accident could have been avoided "
if the crew had reacted with sufficient speed and energy
".
Despite everything, the families are continuing the legal process. On July 11, 2017, the Bobigny court ordered a dismissal, considering that the investigation did not allow "
to retain any other hypothesis than that of faults attributable to the piloting team
". This decision arouses the anger of the civil parties, denouncing an investigation concluded without indictment (indictment) or hearing of the directors of the company. They won their case on September 24, 2019, when the investigative chamber of the court of appeal deemed
the attempts to hear the Egyptian chairman of the board of directors of Flash Airlines "
insufficient
". She returns the 37 volumes of this procedure for "
manslaughter
»In the hands of a judge from the collective accidents department of the Paris court, so that he can collect the explanations of this manager and examine his possible responsibilities.
A procedure which resulted in the indictment of Mohamed Nour.