Crashed plane was banned by Swiss over safety fears

SWISS officials said yesterday they had barred a crashed airliner more than a year ago because of technical deficiencies.

Flash Airlines flight FSH604 had just taken off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik en route to Cairo and Paris when it crashed early Saturday, killing all 148 people on board.

The fuselage of the plane was believed to be resting in 2,600 feet of water and the extreme depth was hampering efforts to find the flight data recorder that would shed light on the crash.

France joined the recovery effort by dispatching a military surveillance plane, a naval frigate and 16 scuba divers from Djibouti. It was also sending a robot submarine to help search for wreckage and remains.

Egypt said the Flash Airlines jet, an 11-year-old Boeing 737, had checked out fine before the flight. But Swiss officials said yesterday technical problems forced them to ban the Egyptian company's planes from landing in Switzerland.

"A series of safety shortcomings showed up in a plane of Flash Airlines during a routine security check at Zurich Airport in October 2002," said Celestine Perissinotto, a spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation.

Egyptian Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafeeq called the charge "baseless".

"If they have any proof, they have to submit it," he told reporters.

Ms Perissinotto said the Swiss report had been given to Egyptian civil aviation authorities. "Since then we have had no reaction," she said.

Flash Airlines' chief pilot Hassan Mounir denied the Swiss ban stemmed from safety concerns, saying "it was a financial problem".

But Mr Mounir confirmed Italian press reports that a Flash plane caught fire while flying over Greece the same month as the Zurich airport inspection. Italian tourists recalled seeing flames coming out of the starboard engine on a flight from Sharm el-Sheik to Bologna, Italy, on October 27, 2002.

"To say that the plane was decrepit would be a compliment," passenger Eugenio Gedda told Italian state television yesterday.

"It's normal," Mr Mounir said. "You can have an engine fire in flight."

He said he could not say if the fire occurred on the same plane that crashed Saturday. Flash Airlines, which has been in business six years, operated two Boeing 737s.

Asked if the fire and Zurich inspection did not raise questions about the standard of maintenance at Flash Airlines, Mr Mounir replied: "No, our planes are very well maintained."

Egypt has said the crash was an accident apparently caused by a mechanical problem.

A French investigation team was expected to arrive later Sunday and French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin declared the nation in mourning. The US also was sending an investigator.