EgyptAir crash over Crete: cigarette is said to have resulted in 66 deaths

Created: 04/28/2022, 19:05

By: Anna Lehmer

EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea near Crete under mysterious circumstances.

66 people on board died.

© Soeren Stache

In 2016, an EgyptAir plane with 66 passengers crashed.

Six years later, the possible cause of the accident has been found.

The pilot is said to have taken a smoke break.

Athens – It's been almost six years since an EgyptAir plane with 66 passengers disappeared from the radar.

EgyptAir flight MS804 was en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19, 2016 when the plane crashed near Crete.

For a long time, various theories circulated as to how this accident could have happened.

Investigators first suspected a terrorist attack, but a year later they ruled out a bomb explosion on board the plane.

The cause of the crash was not found.

Now an investigation report has come to a new conclusion.

A cigarette was to blame for the deaths of 56 passengers and ten crew members – smoked in the cockpit of the aircraft.

Plane crash near Crete: Pilot is said to have lit a cigarette

According to the report, a pilot lit the cigarette and used it to start a fire, the

reported .

The French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA) concluded that the pilot had taken a mid-air smoke break.

His glowing cigarette would have ignited the oxygen leaking from an oxygen mask in the cockpit.

Smoking break above the clouds: Pilot smokes a cigarette - 66 people die

The plane crash killed 12 French nationals, 30 Egyptians, two Iraqis, one Canadian and one British national.

During subsequent investigations, Egyptian authorities concluded that the crash was the result of a terrorist attack.

They explained that traces of explosives were found on the bodies of the victims.

A short time later, these claims were largely refuted.

Plane crash due to cigarette: French authorities present new report

The French aviation authority BEA determined in 2018 that the crash was caused by a fire on board.

Data from the black box recovered from the sea near Greece supported this statement.

Exactly what caused the inferno on board could not be determined.

In 2022, the agency released a new report that shed new light on the case.

Investigators claimed that oxygen leaked from a pilot's mask shortly before the crash.

That's according to the data from the black box that recorded the sound of the hissing oxygen, according to the

.

2016 EgyptAir crash: Pilots were allowed to smoke on the plane

The accident happened because the mask's outlet valve was set to the "emergency position" for unknown reasons, which can lead to leaks.

Along with the cigarette, there was a momentous explosion.

However, the pilot did not behave incorrectly, because at the time of the accident EgyptAir pilots were allowed to smoke in the cockpit - a rule that has since been changed.

The fatal plane crash is currently the subject of a manslaughter case before the Paris Court of Appeal.

The judge ordered a new report.