| Date: | Thursday 19 May 2016 |
| Time: | 02:36 |
| Type: |  Airbus A320-232 |
| Owner/operator: | EgyptAir |
| Registration: | SU-GCC |
| MSN: | 2088 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2003 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 48052 hours |
| Cycles: | 20773 flights |
| Engine model: | IAE V2527-A5 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 66 / Occupants: 66 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | ca 200 km N of Egyptian coast -
 Mediterranean Sea
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG/LFPG) |
| Cairo International Airport (CAI/HECA) | |
| Investigating agency: | ECAA |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
EgyptAir flight 804, an Airbus A320, impacted the Mediterranean Sea some 200 km north of the Egyptian coast line, killing all 66 on board.
Flight MS804 departed Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, at 21:21 UTC (23:21 hours local time on May 18). Scheduled departure time was 22:45 LT. Destination of the flight was Cairo, Egypt.
At 23:22 UTC the flight entered Greek airspace at FL370. Last radio contact was at 23:48 UTC during a radio frequency change.
At 00:25:24 UTC a hissing sound was heard in the cockpit, followed by a 'pop' and a second hissing sound. The captain, copilot and a flight attendant sitting in the jump seat all exclaimed "fire!".
The copilot then called for a fire extinguisher.
From 00:25:58 UTC on the Flight Data Recorder began logging multiple warnings, like 'Lavatory smoke', 'Avionic smoke', and Master Warnings. This continued with additional warnings and errors until the end of the recording.
At 00:27:23, ATC instructed the flight to contact Cairo ACC, but no reply was received.
The aircraft suddenly taking a 90 degree turn left, followed by a 360 degree turn to the right as it descended from FL370 to FL150 before disappearing off radars.
The aircraft impacted the surface of the sea.
The Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder were both recovered from the sea bed on June 16, 2016.
The Egyptian AAID published its final report on October 30, 2024, concluding:
Probable cause
The aircraft flight path was uncontrollable as the aircraft and the flight crew were severely affected by fire and smoke. This resulted from the effects of the explosive materials located at the forward galley just behind the rear section of the cockpit. The aircraft crashed into the sea.
Contributing factors
- The fire/smoke event took place very quickly and flight crew were disabled.
- Several aircraft systems failure.
- Explosion resulted in oxygen flow in the cockpit, which enriched the fire/ smoke.
BEA France commented on the EAAID's findings and remarked:
The factual accuracy of the report is questionable, and the reasoning for the scenarios appears to distort the facts.
The report repeatedly mentions the presence of French experts concerning the discovery of TNT. The BEA would like to emphasize that the French experts acted as advisors and observers and had neither the role nor the possibility of validating any findings concerning the presence of explosives on human remains. The French experts involved indicated that the results obtained do not allow for a definitive conclusion regarding the presence of TNT. However, the presence of TNT is never questioned and is taken as an assumption or even as a starting point in all scenario analyses.
This leads to an unrealistic scenario incompatible with the sequence of warnings, failures and crew announcements.
The BEA disagrees with the scenario established by the investigation committee and maintains the conclusions drawn from its study:
The accident sequence began while the aeroplane was cruising at FL370, with a cabin crew member present in the cockpit, the captain resting in his seat and the co-pilot flying.
It has not been possible to precisely explain the start of the accident sequence. It is likely to have been an oxygen flow resulting either from a component failure (in the oxygen storage box or in the upstream distribution system) or from pressing the EMERGENCY knob on the co-pilot's oxygen mask. A fire then started in the mask storage box, and was fed by a leak of pressurised oxygen. It has not been possible to determine which came first: the fire or the oxygen leak.
Whichever the case, the oxygen-fed fire spread to the outside of the storage box. This type of fire is rapid, large-scale and uncontrollable. It produces a characteristic noise comparable to that of a blowtorch. The protective and extinguishing equipment items in the cockpit were not sufficient to bring the fire under control.
The fire damaged the computer power supply systems, which led to the disconnection of the autopilot in particular.
No crew actions were recorded in the cockpit. It has not been possible to determine whether the crew remained in the cockpit, whether they were unconscious or whether they fled the fire and then returned or remained outside the cockpit.
The aeroplane’s flight path was uncontrolled and the aircraft collided with the sea.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
Flightradar24
Oxygen fire in cockpit study - Accident to the A320 registered SU_GCC on 19 May 2016" (BEA)
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 25 June 2013 | SU-GCC | EgyptAir | 0 | near Cairo Airport |  |
min |
| Engine failure | ||||||
Location
Images:
photo (c) Flightradar24; Mediterranean Sea; 19 May 2016
photo (c) Ahmet Akin Diler; Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport (IST/LTBA); 09 April 2014
photo (c) Jos Van den Broeck; Brussel-Zaventem Airport (BRU/EBBR); 06 November 2015
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 30-Oct-2024 15:48 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, Accident report, ] |
| 30-Oct-2024 15:51 | ASN | Updated |
| 30-Oct-2024 16:45 | ASN | Updated |
| 30-Oct-2024 20:09 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, ] |
| 03-Nov-2024 08:56 | ASN | Updated [Time, Source, Narrative, ] |
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