SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, 6 January 2004 — Expectations rose yesterday that search teams were near to finding the airliner that crashed here at the weekend, killing all 148 people on board, amid a round-the-clock search for bodies and debris in the waters off this Red Sea resort.
Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafik, meanwhile, defended Cairo-based Flash Airlines, which operated the doomed Paris-bound flight, against charges that led to a ban of its aircraft in Switzerland. In Paris, the French government said it suspected an accident at takeoff caused the Boeing 737-300 to crash but declined to rule out any cause, including terrorism, pending reports from French investigators on site.
A French official at the scene said the Egyptian-led investigation was homing in on the main portion of the aircraft. “Based on the first Egyptian indications, the wreck has just about been located,” the official said on condition he not be named.
He added that the main portion of the plane appeared to be in about 400 meters (1,300 feet) of water rather than in the deeper chasms of the region, which can drop to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet).
The official, whose country is taking part in the Egyptian-led investigation, said “more details” could be obtained on the location of the wreck when various equipment, including a tiny submarine robot, are deployed.
