Egypt Air flight from Paris to Cairo disappears from radar (mechanic)

[oceangaia]

A fire on board does not preclude terrorism. A fire could have been intentionally started or caused by a small well-placed bomb not strong enough to breach the hull. This fire would seem to have to break out very rapidly to bring the plane down so quickly and without any mayday.

[hunterseat]

Originally Posted by burdell

The first rule is FLY THE AIRPLANE, anything else is secondary.

So right. Natural instinct of a pilot "Don't crash". We had a pilot nearly die trying to save a plane in a barrel roll (no chance). Thankfully his back seater initiated ejection. (F4, Philippines, lots of videos around of the crash)

I get the feeling there was an explosion (or something traumatic) in the avionics bay that affected/damaged the relays or contactors involved in those right windshield systems.

[Lieneke]

This is interesting. Was the problem of smoke in the lavatory fixed when it first occurred, or was it set aside for later?

[11thHour]

Originally Posted by Lieneke

This is interesting. Was the problem of smoke in the lavatory fixed when it first occurred, or was it set aside for later?

We don't know yet, but highly unlikely. It was just one of the cascading events that unfolded within minutes.

[Lieneke]

Originally Posted by 11thHour

We don't know yet, but highly unlikely. It was just one of the cascading events that unfolded within minutes.

Is the history in the course of a day, a week? I assumed that it was in the course of a week, but do I understand correctly that smoke in the lavatory could have first happened during an earlier flight that day?

If that's the case, this is all on the airline carrier.

[11thHour]

Ah, I see that it's showing another occurrence at some point earlier, so who knows. It doesn't tell us exactly when that occurrence was.

[Lieneke]

Originally Posted by 11thHour

Ah, I see that it's showing another occurrence at some point earlier, so who knows. It doesn't tell us exactly when that occurrence was.

Sorry - that last image was a bit small. Yes, I'm looking at the first instance and the dates from May 18-19. If the first instance of smoke in the lavatory was on May 18, and it wasn't properly repaired, then this is on the airline.

[Ethereal]

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

This makes zero sense. Zero.

First, the aircraft was bound for Egypt - turning around and flying the length of the Mediterranean was probably beyond its fuel load.

Second, you somehow imagine that an airliner is going to fly through the Straits of Gibraltar and not be noticed on radar?

Third, what would be the point? Instead of just a bomb or someone on a suicide mission, it would have to be a takeover that included someone who could fly the aircraft. Sure, 09/11 proved that's possible, but since it's also exponentially more complex that just a mission to destroy an aircraft, there needs to be some payoff. And that payoff would be... um, what, precisely? And the idea that this would somehow be cunning makes even less than zero sense.

Considering what happened to the 9/11 planes and MH370, why would that scenario make "zero sense"?

Anyway, it's just speculation. No need to get overly defensive and complacent.

[Lieneke]

I'm ready to run with mechanical failure that first started under the lavatory near the cockpit earlier in the flight, or earlier in the 24 hour flight history. It looks like there is a point in the Occurrance History indicating that it could have been looked at during a stop-over maintenance check. It looks to me like there was an issue with computer wires that resulted in a full malfunction while transitioning between two airspace traffic controller towers.

It really depends on what the data on the chart means. The dates are May18-19 and there are 15 markers in the row. The lavatory smoke row is checked at marker 7 in the row, and then again on marker 15 in the row. is that hour 7 and hour 15 of scheduled maintenance?

How many hours was the flight? I'm guessing that it is fewer than 8 hours, and that the first alert to smoke in the lavatory was during an earlier flight. Was that problem checked at the last stop over?

What is the scheduled maintenance in terms of hours?

[Chava61]

Any possibility that one pilot was trying to commit suicide and the other was trying to prevent the plane going down and this caused some the strange movements of the plane before going down into the sea?!