Across the world, leaders are jumping to conclusions about the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804, which was on its way from Paris to Cairo and lost contact in Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. From the head of Russia's FSB security service to Donald Trump, terrorism is on the tip of everyone's tongues. And while the cause of the crash is still unknown, Egypt's history of ruling out terrorism when planes crash makes it especially significant that its civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathy, tentatively noted an attack as a distinct possibility.
"Let's not try to jump to the side that is trying to identify this as a technical failure," Fathy told a news conference. "On the contrary, the possibility of a terror attack is higher than a malfunction, but again, I don't want to hypothesize."
In two previous cases in which Egypt has had jurisdiction over the investigations of an air accident, its government - first under Hosni Mubarak in 1999, and then under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi last year - vociferously denied any links to terrorism or foul play, even when other investigations found definitive evidence to the contrary.
Metrojet Flight 9268
On Oct. 31, 2015, a chartered plan carrying Russian tourists from the resort city of Sharm el-Sheik was bombed, apparently by the Islamic State, over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Within two days of the crash, which killed all 224 people onboard, Russian teams had established that a mid-air explosion could have been responsible for the wide debris field, and an American intelligence official said infrared satellite had picked up on a heat-flash in the vicinity of the crash, which could indicate an explosion. On Nov. 17, Russia officially concluded that the disaster was an act of terrorism. A day later, the Islamic State published photos in its magazine, Dabiq, of what it said was the bomb used in the attack.
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"Let's not try to jump to the side that is trying to identify this as a technical failure," Fathy told a news conference. "On the contrary, the possibility of a terror attack is higher than a malfunction, but again, I don't want to hypothesize."
In two previous cases in which Egypt has had jurisdiction over the investigations of an air accident, its government - first under Hosni Mubarak in 1999, and then under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi last year - vociferously denied any links to terrorism or foul play, even when other investigations found definitive evidence to the contrary.
Metrojet Flight 9268
On Oct. 31, 2015, a chartered plan carrying Russian tourists from the resort city of Sharm el-Sheik was bombed, apparently by the Islamic State, over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Within two days of the crash, which killed all 224 people onboard, Russian teams had established that a mid-air explosion could have been responsible for the wide debris field, and an American intelligence official said infrared satellite had picked up on a heat-flash in the vicinity of the crash, which could indicate an explosion. On Nov. 17, Russia officially concluded that the disaster was an act of terrorism. A day later, the Islamic State published photos in its magazine, Dabiq, of what it said was the bomb used in the attack.
To Read the News in Full
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