A year after the tragedy that killed 66 people including 15 French in the crash of Egyptair Paris-Cairo MS804 flight on May 19, 2016, the investigation could go ahead.
It would question the co-pilot’s Apple devices. They could have caught fire in the cockpit of the aircraft from which the fire started.
This is the hypothesis that the three investigating judges in charge of the French judicial investigation want to verify. For this, the magistrates will appoint three experts outside the judicial list, because they are leading specialist of lithium batteries. One is an engineer researcher at the CNRS (France’s National Scientific Research Center), the second is a doctor of physical (solid state Physics) of the Ministry of the Armies, and the third, an engineer specializing in cells batteries, also military. Charge for them to test three iPad Mini Wifi 3G model A 1455 and three iPhone 6S, both new and used.
The very thorough investigation by the Gendarmerie des transports air (GTA) of Roissy-CDG shows that the co-pilot of the Airbus A320 of the MS804 was in possession of an iPhone 6S and a tablet iPad mini 4. This was found In view of the images of a surveillance camera taken from the satellite of terminal 1 of Roissy-CDG where the Airbus was parked.
In flight, did the charging of the smartphone and the tablet by the power supply of the aircraft with a plug in the cockpit have caused a thermal runaway of their Lithium batteries?
This is one of the questions the judges ask the experts.
It is then necessary to calculate the heat radiation produced and to analyze the soot and the gases produced. This will help to determine whether the combustion of the aircraft could render the aircraft uncontrollable by asphyxiating the pilots. This scenario will be filmed and of course closer to the timing of the Fly Data Recorder. This flight recorder that stores the flight parameters has been recovered in good condition and analyzed by the Le Bourget BEA on behalf of the Egyptian investigators.
Apple said it was “not contacted by the experts” but “ready to answer all their questions”. The American company recalls that all its products are “rigorously tested”.
Until then, the Egyptian authorities supported the thesis of the attack, despite numerous evidence of an accident. The families of the French victims had demonstrated a week ago in front of the Egyptian embassy in Paris to “denounce the lack of transparency of Cairo”.