EgyptAir head denies crash failure

The plane hit a hill, nearly smashing in two

The chairman of EgyptAir has denied Tunisian claims that the landing gear of a plane which crash-landed on Tuesday failed.

Mohamed Faheem al-Rayyan was speaking before leaving for Tunis to head the investigation into the incident in which at least 14 people died.

He also rejected reports that the pilot had dumped fuel as the plane got into trouble, the French news agency AFP reported.

The EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 broke apart as it rammed into a hill in the Ennahli national park near Tunis airport while attempting to land in heavy rain.

About 64 people were on board the flight from Cairo.

The Tunisian health ministry said that at least 48 people were injured in the accident, although other reports said several people walked away unhurt.

Crash probe

The team of Egyptian civil aviation experts arrived in Tunis on Wednesday to aid the Tunisian investigation into the accident.

The delegation will also take home the bodies of at least six Egyptians who were among the dead.

A senior security official said the plane's flight recorder had been found in the wreckage and handed to the authorities.

EgyptAir disasters

1999 - Boeing 767 plunges into Atlantic off Massachusetts, killing all 217 onboard

1985 - Egyptian troops storm hijacked EgyptAir jet in Malta - 60 passengers and crew killed

1976 - EgyptAir plane crashes near Bangkok - 72 passengers and crew killed

Tunisian civil aviation chief Hamadi Ben Khalifa told the Reuters news agency the air control tower had given the flight permission to land, but then lost contact with the pilot.

Another airport official said there had been problems with the landing equipment.

"When he found it difficult to handle the landing gear, he made a half circle before the plane was lost from the airport radar screens," he told Reuters.

And another official said: "The plane did not explode when it hit the hill because the pilot ejected the fuel tank as he was making the emergency landing".

But Mohamed Amine, the head flight attendant, who escaped with minor injuries, blamed the crash on "bad weather and bad visibility".

EgyptAir's vice-president for safety, Shaker Qilada, denied that the plane had made an emergency landing. "It was a normal landing approach," she said.

Survivors

"We felt jolts in the plane, and a member of the crew reassured us that it was only clouds," Tunisan passenger, Narjess Hadada, told the Associated Press.

At least 48 people were injured in the crash

"Suddenly, we saw sparks in the plane and then it hit the ground," she said.

She escaped with her two children through a hole in the grounded plane.

"I feel like I've been born a second time," she said.

Another passenger, 42-year-old Houssam Morchedi, said most of the victims were near the back of the plane.

"When we felt turbulence the captain calmly said 'take a deep breath', then the plane hit and broke in two," he told the Reuters news agency.

"We in the front had no problems, we managed to escape from the wreckage easily. Most of the dead and wounded were in the rear part," he said.

One Egyptian passenger telephoned his family in Cairo on a mobile phone to say that he was safe.

Previous deaths

The dead included at least six Egyptians, five Tunisians, a Jordanian and two other passengers, the Tunisan health ministry said.

The airline had initially said 18 were killed in the crash.

In October 1999 an EgyptAir Boeing 767 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Massachusetts, killing all 217 people on board. US safety officials blamed the crash on the plane's co-pilot - a claim rejected by Egypt.

Before 1999, EgyptAir had not experienced a major crash for 23 years.