FLASH AIRLINES FLIGHT 604
On January 3, 2004, Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, Egypt. All 148 people on board were killed.
The Flight 604 was a charter flight provided by Egyptian private charter company Flash Airlines, and its destination was Cairo International Airport. The accident airplane was a Boeing 737-3Q8, registered as SU-ZCF. The aircraft was delivered new to TACA International Airlines in October 1992, and had been operated by Flash Airlines since June 2001. Flash Airlines was a private charter airline, operating out of Cairo, Egypt. It was part of the Flash Group tourism company.
The captain was Khadr Abdullah, who had almost 7 500 hours of flight time. The first officer was Amr Al-Shaafei, who had fewer than 800 hours of flying experience. Ashraf Abdelhamid, who was training as a first officer, sat in the cockpit with the pilots.
The aircraft departed at 04:42. After takeoff, it made a right turn to intercept the airport's VOR system, and the autopilot was then engaged. When the autopilot was engaged, the captain made an exclamation, and the autopilot was immediately switched off again. The captain then requested Heading Select to be engaged. The plane then began to bank to the right. The copilot then warned the captain a few times about the fact that the bank angle was increasing. At a bank angle of 40 degrees to the right, the captain stated "OK come out". The ailerons returned briefly to neutral before additional aileron movements commanded an increase in the right bank. When the bank reached 50 degrees, first officer called out: "overbank," indicating that the aircraft's bank was becoming dangerously far. The bank angle increased rapidly, until it reached 111 degrees, at which point the aircraft entered a stall. Both throttles were moved to idle, and the airplane gently seemed to recover from the nose-down, right bank attitude. Speed however increased, causing an overspeed warning. The maximum bank angle recorded was 111 degrees right. Pitch attitude at that time was 43 degrees nose down, and altitude was 3470 feet. Just three minutes after takeoff, at 04:45 the aircraft crashed into the Red Sea in a 24 degrees right bank, 24 degrees nose-down. No decisive cause for the accident was ever found. It remains the deadliest accident involving a Classic 737 aircraft.
NOTABLE AVIATION ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS