According to an Italian media source, the disaster of Egyptair flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo in 2016 was caused by one of the pilots smoking a cigarette onboard.
When the Airbus A320, registration SU-GCC, fell into the Mediterranean Sea, all 66 people on board died. The Egyptian government has never released a final report on the disaster.
On April 26, 2022, the Corriere della Sera cited a report delivered to a Paris court that is examining the crash with the goal of laying manslaughter charges. The fire started in the flight deck when one of the pilots lit a cigarette, according to the report. According to the article, Egypt Air did not prohibit smoking at the time.
According to the findings, the fire started on the disaster aircraft because one of the emergency oxygen masks was leaking oxygen after a valve was replaced in the improper position three days earlier. The crew lost control of the plane because of a combination of leaking oxygen and a cigarette that caused a fire.
On July 6, 2018, BEA air accident investigators stated that “the most plausible scenario is that a fire broke out in the cockpit when the airplane was flying at its cruising altitude and that the fire spread fast, resulting in the airplane losing control.”
Egyptian air accident investigators previously stated that they discovered signs of explosives, prompting them to turn the case over to public prosecutors.
At the time, the BEA chastised Egyptian authorities for failing to release a final report, claiming that they would have used it to clarify differences of opinion with Egyptian investigators.
“The BEA considers that it is necessary to have this final report in order to have the possibility of understanding the cause of the accident and to provide the aviation community with the safety lessons which could prevent future accidents.”
