Flash Airlines Flight 604 was a charter flight from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport in Egypt to Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, France, with a stop-over at Cairo International Airport, provided by Egyptian private charter company Flash Airlines. On 3 January 2004, the Boeing 737-300 that was operating the route crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, killing all 135 passengers, most of whom were French tourists, and all thirteen crew members. The findings of the crash investigation were controversial, with accident investigators from the different countries involved unable to agree on the cause of the accident.
Flight 604 was the deadliest air disaster in Egypt until it was surpassed almost twelve years later by the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268. It remains the deadliest accident involving a 737 Classic aircraft.
History of the flight
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft involved in the accident was an 11 year old Boeing 737-3Q8 powered by two CFM56-3C1 engines. It was built by Boeing at its Renton factory in Renton, Washington and made its first flight on 9 October 1992 before it was delivered to TACA International Airlines as N373TA on 22 October 1992. It operated with TACA until it was retired and then delivered to the then-newly founded Norwegian low-cost carrier Color Air on 28 May 1998 as G-COLB, operating for British aviation company Air Foyle, and named Trondheim, before Color Air commenced operations on 1 August that year. After Color Air ceased operations on 27 September 1999, G-COLB was leased by the International Lease Finance Corporation as N161LF on 22 November, before it was purchased by Heliopolis Airlines on 21 April 2000, and was given the registration SU-ZCE and named Shaza. It operated briefly with Heliopolis Airlines before being leased by the ILFC once again, this time under the registration N221LF on 17 May. It was then purchased by Egyptian low-cost carrier Mediterranean Airlines on 10 July under its new registration SU-MBA, named Cataract and operated with the carrier before it ceased operations sometime in 2001. Still wearing the livery of Mediterranean Airlines, SU-MBA was purchased by Heliopolis Airlines once again on 23 June and given the final registration SU-ZCF. It had been operated by Heliopolis Airlines until its name was changed to Flash Airlines on 22 July. Since its purchase and subsequent airline renaming, SU-ZCF wore the livery of short-lived Mediterranean Airlines with the patched Flash Airlines logo on the body as well as the small Flash Group logo with the text reading Member of FLASH Group above and below patched over the logo of Mediterranean Airlines on the tail before it was replaced by the large logo. The large text on the rear of body reading FLASH AIRLINES was added slightly later in late 2001. It did not acquire the name Nour until sometime in 2003, when the livery was changed with the replacement of the red and blue stripes with a grey belly with a dark blue belly with a single dark blue stripe and the addition of the text Member of the FLASH Group under the windows and the body logo. At the time of the accident, it had accumulated 25,600 flight hours and 18,000 cycles of takeoffs and landings.
The captain of Flight 604 was 53-year-old Khadr Abdullah (referred to as Mohammed Khedr in a Times Online article). He was a highly respected pilot who had accrued almost 7,500 hours of flight time, including 474 hours on the Boeing 737. The first officer was 25-year-old Amr Al-Shaafei who had fewer than 800 hours of flying experience, with 242 of them on the Boeing 737. 42-year-old Ashraf Abdelhamid, who was training as a first officer and had experience flying corporate jets, sat in the cockpit with the pilot and co-pilot. Though Egyptian, Abdelhamid also held Canadian and U.S. citizenships.
Passengers
Most of the passengers aboard the flight were French tourists from the Paris metropolitan area. A provisional passenger list, dated 5 January 2004, stated that twelve entire French families had boarded the flight. Members of only seventeen families appeared at Charles de Gaulle Airport to meet passengers off the flight; this gave an indication to the airport staff that entire families had died on Flight 604.
Accident
The aircraft departed from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport at 04:42 EET (02:42 UTC) on 3 January 2004. After taking off, it made a left turn to intercept the airport's VOR system, and the autopilot was then engaged.
