Flash Airlines
Sharm El -Sheikh
Flash Airlines was a charter airline based in Cairo Egypt.
History
In 1995, the airline was founded as Heliopolis Airlines and was a year later to resume flight operations. 2000, the Company was acquired by the Group and renamed Flash since that time as a Flash Airlines. With two aircraft of type Boeing 737-300, the airline has specialized in internal Egyptian and international charter flights.
Due to numerous major deficiencies (see Incidents ) have already 2002 flight bans against Flash Airlines pronounced in several European countries, including bans since October 2002 for the Swiss air space and a little later for the Polish. In Norway, the air traffic control refused further co-operation with the airline. The Egyptian Ministry of Aviation and the aviation minister Ahmed Shafik reported the allegations of the Swiss authorities rejected as groundless. The chief pilot of the airline, Hassan Munir, however, pointed to financial problems of the airline as a reason for the ban in Switzerland granted.
On January 3, 2004 Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed after takeoff from Sharm El -Sheikh airport to the Red Sea.
As of 2004, further events was determined by the consequences of the crash of the SU- ZCF. After it became clear in the course of investigations of Flash Airlines flight 604 that essential documents relating to the maintenance of the machine could not be presented, Flash Airlines was henceforth banished from French airspace. Although internationally required ( JAR- OPS), the crew members were not trained by CRM training with Flash Airlines, which aims to ensure an efficient cooperation of all crew members, especially in extraordinary situations.
Due to numerous outspoken bans on the airline and the massive criticism in the media presented Flash Airlines two months after the crash of the flight operations.
Fleet
Flash Airlines decreed in 1998 on an Airbus A310 -222 with the registration SU- ZCC and at least one McDonnell Douglas MD -83 (Reg. SU- ZCA ).
End of 2003, the fleet of the airline consisted of two aircraft of type Boeing 737-300:
- Boeing 737- 3Q8 (SU- ZCD ) - This aircraft was delivered in 1992 at TACA and was since July 2001 for Flash airlines. Since 23 November 2004, the machine is under registration VP- CAY in the service of Cayman Airways.
- Boeing 737- 3Q8 (SU- ZCF ) - Also on TACA this machine was delivered in 1993 and came in November 2001 from the holdings of Color Air fleet of Flash Airlines. Initially the aircraft as SU- ZCE and SU- MBA was registered and has since been used by Air Memphis.
Trying to rent a 737-800 from XL Airways was discarded.
Incidents (Overview)
Unannounced inspections by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation gave in 2002 on the Boeing 737- 3Q8 (Reg. SU- ZCF ) that the oxygen masks ( donning Quick masks ) for the cockpit crew were missing, making it the pilot not in the case of a pressure drop possible on board would have been to provide themselves with vital oxygen. In addition, the stocks of oxygen were not sufficient, and there were several instruments in the cockpit that did not work properly. The aircraft was given a curfew until the airline could eliminate after eight hours of the defects. A few days later, a flight ban for Flash Airlines for Swiss airspace was pronounced.
In 2003, 737- 3Q8 (Reg. SU- ZCD ) was an incident on board the second Boeing on a flight from Sharm El Sheikh to Bologna, as it came to an engine fire in cruise flight. The plane had to land between, but in this incident no passenger was killed or injured.
For most devastating disaster occurred in the early morning hours of January 3, 2004, when a Boeing 737- 3Q8 (Reg. SU- ZCF ) on Flash Airlines flight 604 to Paris -Charles de Gaulle airport shortly after takeoff from Sharm el- Sheikh crashed into the Red Sea. When the disaster came all 135 passengers and all 13 crew members on board were killed.