History of The Flight
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-3Q8, had originally been delivered to TACA Airlines in 1992. Other operators included Color Air, Egypt-based Mediterranean Airlines, and the prior corporate identity of Flash Airlines, Heliopolis Airlines.
The flight took off at 04:42 local time (Eastern European Time) (0242 GMT) from runway 22R at the Egyptian resort en route to Paris via Cairo. The captain was one of Egypt's most experienced pilots, with over 7,000 hours flying experience that included a highly decorated career in the Egyptian Air Force.
After taking off, the aircraft should have climbed and initiated a left turn to follow the air corridor to Cairo designated by the Sharm el-Sheikh VOR station. The captain appeared surprised when the autopilot was engaged, which he immediately switched off again. The copilot warned the captain that the bank angle was increasing. At a bank angle of 40 degrees to the right, the captain said "OK, come out". The ailerons were briefly returned to a neutral before being commanded to increase the bank to the right. The aircraft reached an altitude of 5,460 feet (1,660 m) with a 50 degrees bank when the copilot exclaimed "Overbank!" repeatedly when the bank angle kept increasing. The bank angle was 111 degrees right, while the pitch attitude was 43 degrees nose down at an altitude of 3,470 feet (1,060 m). The observer on the flight deck, also a pilot, but a trainee on this type of aircraft, shouted "Retard power, retard power, retard power!". Both throttles were moved to idle; the captain appeared to regain control of the airplane from the nose-down, right bank attitude. However the speed increased, causing an overspeed warning. At 04:45, the aircraft impacted the water about 9.4 statute miles (15.2 km; 8.2 nmi) south of the airport. The impact occurred while the aircraft was in a 24 degree right bank, 24 degree nose-down attitude, travelling at 416 knots (770 km/h) and pulling 3.9g (38 m/s²). All passengers and crew were killed on impact.
Charles de Gaulle Airport initially indicated the Flash Airlines flight as delayed; authorities began notifying relatives and friends of the deaths of the passengers two hours after the scheduled arrival time. Authorities took relatives and friends to a hotel, where they received a list of passengers confirmed to be on the flight. Marc Chernet, president of the victims' families association of Flight 604, described the disaster as the "biggest air disaster involving French nationals" in civil aviation.
Read more about this topic: Flash Airlines Flight 604
Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history of, history and/or flight:
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (18871971)
“The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (18701924)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under mens reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (18961970)
“What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around.”
—Georges Bernanos (18881948)