Posted on 01/04/2004 8:32:01 AM PST by blam
France sends submarine to aid Red Sea search
January 04 2004 at 12:21PM
Sharm El-Sheikh - France sent a submarine robot and a warship to join an Egyptian-led search for the remains of a Paris-bound plane that plunged into the Red Sea, killing all 148 aboard.
Egyptian navy ships, aided by Italian warships in the area, pursued their search of a broad area off the resort at Sharm el-Sheikh where the charter plane crashed before dawn on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Egyptian police closed a popular tourist bay to all vessels other than those involved in the search.
France's naval attache in Egypt, Commander Xavier de Sontenay, said the submarine robot arrived on Sunday and was already operating in the crash area.
'The rescue workers have not found a complete body' He added that the robot could operate well in an area where Egyptian officials expected to find the plane's fuselage on the seabed about 300m beneath the surface.
De Sontenay told reporters that a radar-equipped frigate, the Tourville, was also heading north from Djibouti, where France has a naval base, to help search for the plane's black box flight data recorders.
French civil aviation accident inquiry specialists and diving teams, based in Djibouti, were also expected to be operational on Sunday, officials said from Paris earlier.
The plane plunged into the sea minutes after take-off from Sharm El-Sheikh shortly before 5am, killing all 148 people on board, including 133 French tourists returning from a New Year's holiday.
The crash, which France said had killed entire families, came as the United States and Britain were on a heightened air security alert for fear that an airliner could be used for a September 11-style terror attack.
'It was a terrible sight' But both French and Egyptian officials said there was nothing to indicate that the loss of the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 was anything but an accident.
"Since yesterday, the rescue workers have not found a complete body and have only found the remains of bodies," a police officer told reporters.
The estimated 13 bodies found so far were being kept at the main hospital in Sharm El-Sheikh.
France's deputy foreign minister, Renaud Muselier, visited the hospital on Sunday with experts in identification.
"We were able to see the bag which held the body parts. It was a terrible sight," he said.
Police prevented angry and grief-stricken families of the 13 Egyptian crew from entering the hospital on Saturday evening after they were flown here from Cairo by charter company Flash Airlines, which operated the doomed plane.
"They tell us there are only pieces of flesh placed inside and that we will not be able to identify anyone," one of the relatives, Hatem al-Qaliubi, told reporters.
"But we want to enter. Maybe we will be able to identify something," he shouted as women sobbed in front of the police.
Flight 604 to Paris via Cairo disappeared from radar screens at 4:44am, minutes after taking off.
"The plane had a problem at take-off and then tried to turn around, and it was at that moment that it apparently crashed," junior French transport minister Dominique Bussereau said.
Radar readings showed that the doomed charter flight climbed to 5 000 feet after take-off and made a planned left turn before engaging in an unusual manoeuvre and plunging into the sea, Shafik said.
Egyptian civil aviation officials said there were 133 French tourists on board, as well as one Japanese and a Moroccan, both women. The remainder comprised the Egyptian crew flying the plane and a relief crew.
On Saturday, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin went to Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport to meet distraught family members, some of whom were unaware of the crash when they arrived to meet their relatives.
Meanwhile French Justice Minister Dominique Perben asked prosecutors to open a preliminary inquiry for manslaughter following the crash, allowing France to send investigators to the scene.
The Boeing Company said it was also sending an investigator to Egypt to look into the cause of a crash.
According to Boeing, the airplane had been delivered to Flash Airlines in October 1992 and accumulated 17,973 flight hours.
It was the third crash on the African continent of a Boeing 737, the world's most widely-used passenger jet, in less than nine months and the third serious accident involving an Egyptian plane in the past few years.
Sharm el-Sheikh, tucked between the rugged mountains of the Sinai desert and the clear waters of the Red Sea is a glitzy resort offering five-star-hotels, casinos, golf courses and some of the world's best diving.
It is frequently used by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as the venue for Middle East summits, and he had been due to hold talks on Saturday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is holidaying there. - Sapa-AFP
Might simplify the search, if we do not have to look for a missing submarine at the same time...
I've read that it is closer to 3,000 feet.
The Red Sea was blocked off from the world's oceans during the Ice Age and I believe it practically dried up, leaving lots of salt.
The Persian Gulf was completely dry during the Ice Age.
The volcano explosion of Santorini in 1628BC probably breached the 'dam' to the Red Sea...and may even have been the incident recorded in the Bible where the Egyptians pursuing the Jews were washed away and the Red Sea 'refilled' at that time. (All the work of God)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.