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The accident aircraft in 1998.
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Accident | |
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Date | 7 May 2002 (2002-05-07) |
Summary | Controlled flight into terrain |
Site | Near Tunis–Carthage International Airport, Tunis, Tunisia 36°52′36″N 010°08′55″E / 36.87667°N 10.14861°E / 36.87667; 10.14861 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 737-566 |
Aircraft name | Abu Simbel |
Operator | EgyptAir |
IATA flight No. | MS843 |
ICAO flight No. | MSR843 |
Call sign | EGYPTAIR 843 |
Registration | SU-GBI |
Flight origin | Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt |
Destination | Tunis–Carthage International Airport, Tunis, Tunisia |
Occupants | 62 |
Passengers | 56 |
Crew | 6 |
Fatalities | 14 |
Injuries | 28 |
Survivors | 48 (3 crew, 45 passengers) |
EgyptAir Flight 843 was a flight from Cairo International AirporttoTunis–Carthage International Airport. On 7 May 2002, the Boeing 737-566 on the route crashed into a hill near Tunis–Carthage International Airport.[1][2] Of the 6 crew members and 56 passengers, 3 crew members and 11 passengers died, making a total of 14 fatalities.[3]
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 Odah (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.[2][4] The aircraft crashed atop a hill in the Nahli area in the north of Tunis.[4] The aircraft came to rest at an elevation of 750 feet (230 m) above sea level and 4 miles (3.5 nmi; 6.4 km) from the airport.[2][4] 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.[2][5] 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.[2]
According to the management of Carthage Airport, the pilots decided to carry out the normal landing at the airport. The accident occurred during the landing process. There are two theories regarding the accident:
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.[6]
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."[7]
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.[8]
Misr Insurance Company began paying compensation to EgyptAir for the disaster-ridden plane in Tunisia as well as compensation for victims and injured in accordance with the international agreement. The value of the plane's compensation amounted to 22 million dollars, or 110 million pounds.[citation needed]
Aviation accidents and incidents in 2002 (2002)
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Jan 5 Jan 14 Jan 16 Jan 27 Jan 28 Feb 12 Apr 15 Apr 18 May 3 May 4 May 7 China Northern Airlines Flight 6136 May 7 May 25 Jun 17 C-130 Hercules airtanker crash Jul 1 Jul 1 America West Airlines Flight 556 Jul 4 Prestige Airlines Boeing 707 crash Jul 10 Swiss International Air Lines Flight 850 Jul 16 Bristow Helicopters Sikorsky crash Jul 18 PB4Y-2 Privateer airtanker crash Jul 26 Africa One Antonov An-26 crash Jul 26 Jul 27 Jul 28 Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560 Aug 19 Aug 22 Shangri-La Air Twin Otter crash Aug 30 Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4823 Sep 14 Total Linhas Aéreas Flight 5561 Oct 9 Nov 6 Nov 11 Laoag International Airlines Flight 585 Dec 21 Dec 23 | |