World

EgyptAir: A Troubled Carrier

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 31, 1999 / 8:08 AM EST / CBS

EgyptAir's last fatal crash was in Bangkok, Thailand, on Christmas Day in 1976. Forty-three passengers and 20 people on the ground were killed when a Boeing 707 crashed into a textile mill on approach to the runway.

Three years earlier, 30 passengers and seven crewmembers were killed when a Russian-built passenger aircraft crashed into a mountain on approach to Cyprus.

But since those crashes, the 38-plane fleet has seen a fair share of terror. In the most infamous incident, 58 passengers and two crewmembers were killed in a hail of grenade shrapnel when Egyptian commandos stormed a Boeing 737 hijacked to Malta on Nov. 23, 1985.

And less than two weeks ago, a passenger wielding a sharp object was able to wrest control of an EgyptAir jet and force it to divert to Hamburg, Germany. Nobody was killed in that incident, but it raised troubling questions about security procedures on the airline, which is reported to employ sky marshals aboard at least some of its flights.

Critics said the hijack was evidence of sloppy security and blamed the company for not reinforcing the weak cockpit door, which suspected hijacker Khalaf Fadlallah kicked open.

CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports that the airline does have a good reputation in terms of maintenance, according to flight experts.

However, those who have flown the airline frequently complain that airline officials, especially in Cairo, are a lot more rigorous about asking for bribes for overweight luggage, than checking on a passenger's potential threat to security.

Questions about EgyptAirs safety procedures were sure to grow more urgent in the wake of Sundays crash, by far the airlines deadliest incident.

Before the disappearance was confirmed to be a crash, around a dozen people gathered nervously at stairs leading to the EgyptAir operations office at Cairos airport. One man started punching and shoving officials and had to be restrained when airport officials prevented those gathered from reaching the office.

A woman in a red scarf, whose husband was reportedly on the flight, yelled from the bottom of the stairs, We have relatives on this flight. Who else would try to come up?

But amid the grim gathering there were also glimmers of hope.

Imad Kassab trembled with relief when he discovered that his brother-in-law, Essam Bahjat, was not on the passenger list for the flight as he had feared.

Kassab, owner of the Cairo branch of the U.S.-based restaurant Cheesecake Factory, quickly called friends and relatives.

Bahjat's parents were not convinced. His father, Bahjat Bahjat, pounded on the office window. "He hasn't called. He hasn't called," he cried out.

Inside the operations office, EgyptAir's head Mohammed Fahim Rayan and other officials huddled.

Outside the office, airline stewards waited for news about their colleagues. EgyptAir officials said 197 passengers were on the flight, but the number of crewmen was no announced.

The cause of the crash remained a mystery. The pilot was reportedly a seasoned professional with 10,000 hours of experience in the cockpit. The Boeing 767 plane had been considered to be among the worlds safest aircraft.

EgyptAir, founded in 1932 at Misr Airwork, flies to some 85 airports around the world. The airline is one of the oldest in the Middle East and has been plagued by accusations of poor management and bad service.

In 1998, the carrier suffered $60 million in losses when tourists stayed away from Egypt after Muslim extremists killed 58 foreigners in November 1997 at a tourist site in the southern town of Luxor.

However, despite a demonstrated proclivity to launch attacks on the country's tourist industry, Egypt's Islamic militants have largely steered clear of attacks on the airline.