FRENCH Accident Investigators (B.E.A.) find that cockpit fire caused 19 May 2016 Flight MS804 A320 Crash in the Mediterranean
07July2018

 

 

From: XXXXXXXXXXX@iinet.net.au>
Sent: Saturday, July 7, 2018 8:29 AM
To: 'JOHN KING' <john.king19@comcast.net>
Subject: RE: MS 804 Fire (the Conclusion from French Investigators)

 

Thanks JK

It may well revive some interest  in my theory for MH370 (or may not, the suppression factor being what it is). The Pilots’  supplementary oxygen

MS804Route

 system bottle being mounted on the ceiling of the A320’s avionics compartment immediately beneath the F/O’s seat was always a potential factor in my mind. Once any fire took hold in that A320 avionics compartment, the loss of control under the Airbus flight controls system would be unavoidable – and quite quick (whereas the 772 AFCS would be able to soldier on forever- give or take some interim L.O.C. events in CB’s – from which it simply soon recovers itself (once outside a typical isolated heavy cloud build-up encountered within an ITCZ band) -and on a new "lap of the gods" heading. This "new heading" explains all the mystery MH370 turns/tracking after passing across the Malay peninsular (some of which were very "sharp"), that have confounded all the experts for so many years.

 

The fact that Airbus (via the French investigators) has now declared MS804 a non-nefarious fire is very significant. It’s always so much easier to ascribe such an event to terrorism, a bomb or hijacking.

 

There’s always a total seemingly embedded reluctance to calling any such fire “oxygen related” – perhaps it’s because they’d be simultaneously admitting that, at cruise altitude, any such oxygen fire will be automatically fatal via hypoxia - for ALL onboard (Airbus or Boeing). There’s adequate precedent for it in all the spectacular on-ground events that I’ve documented. Similarly there's contingent evidence within all the Boeing models being FAA AD'd for the specific oxygen issue (both before and since MH370). This AD list included the 787, the 744 etc etc.

 

If you think about it, many aircraft now have bottle-fed oxygen throughout. You could call it a peripatetic and omni-present threat. All you need is a trigger failure (such as a wiring flaw generating an arcing fire) for a fuselage-(compromising and -penetrating) depressurization event to dictate the fate of all onboard. The problem with oxygen leaks is that it’s undetectably colourless/odourless and the trigger point for a flash-over event can be quickly reached. That flash-over in an oxygen saturated ambient atmosphere occurs fairly quickly – and, you may recall, the phenomenon is known as  a Deflagration to Detonation Transition event or DTD (see  https://bit.ly/2KAyg5j  ).

 

DTD ’s covered well at that Google link in various places (as well as at  https://bit.ly/2J1Ebuj  in my turgid tome on the MH370 possibilities):

http://tinyurl.com/or9bzf2

 

 

Despite the BEA’s findings, I very much doubt that there will be any move to recover further A320 wreckage to get to the bottom of what exactly caused this A320 accident…. Particularly as it would require the Egyptians to concede that they may have (not for the first time) “leapt to judgment”.

 

Why don’t you mount this on Pprune? (Tech Log maybe). It may well invite some renewed interest in the MH370 oxygen fire/oxyBlowtorch fuselage burnthru-holing/depressurization theory if you simply put “MH370?” after it as a conclusive general question for anybody else to put their two bob’s worth in.

 

Regds

 

J S

 

  From: JOHN KING <john.king19@comcast.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 7, 2018 3:57 AM
To: XXXXXXXXXXX@iinet.net.au
Subject: Re: MS 804 Fire
07Jul2018 Fire was likely cause of 2016 EgyptAir crash: French investigation.


Link > https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fire-likely-cause-of-2016-egyptair-crash-french-investigation/ar-AAzGljc?ocid=spartandhp      and

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44748324


French investigators said Friday a cockpit fire likely caused the 2016 EgyptAir MS804 crash that claimed the lives of 66 passengers and crew, contradicting Egyptian authorities who said explosives traces were found on the victims' remains.
France's civil aviation accident bureau, known by its French acronym BEA, said that information gleaned from the flight recorders suggested that "a fire broke out in the cockpit while the plane was at cruising altitude and the fire spread rapidly, causing the loss of control of the aircraft."
The Airbus A320 was flying from Paris to Cairo on May 19, 2016 when it crashed into the southeastern Mediterranean, killing 66 people, including 40 Egyptians and 15 French citizens.
French investigators had always leaned towards a mechanical fault as the cause of the crash, saying they suspected that a mobile phone or tablet had caught fire.
But an official Egyptian investigation suggested the plane had been bombed, claiming traces of explosives had been found on the victims' remains.
The BEA said the crew could be heard discussing a fire on the cockpit voice recorder and that the plane's automatic ACARS messaging system had flagged up smoke on board.
It said it was waiting for Egypt to publish its final report into the crash to understand how the two countries arrived at a different conclusion.

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The Full BEA Release
Egyptair 804 crash cause according to BEA
... a fire in the cockpit, French investigators said on Friday July 6, 2018.

They said onboard recorders suggested that the blaze had spread rapidly through the plane.

The findings contradict Egypt's earlier statements that explosives had been found on victims' remains, suggesting the aircraft had been bombed.
....
FULL BEA TEXT BELOW
...
Accident to the Airbus A320, registered SU-GCC and operated by Egyptair, on 05/19/2016 in cruise off the Egyptian coast [Investigation led by AIB / Egypt] - 06/07/18 18H15

- Download the full press release

Review of situation on 6 july 2018 18H15

Following the accident on 19 May 2016 over the Mediterranean Sea involving an Airbus A320 registered SU-GCC operated by EgyptAir, a safety investigation was immediately opened. In compliance with the international texts in force, as the accident occurred in international waters, Egypt, as the State of Registry and State of the Operator of the aeroplane, is in charge of carrying out this investigation. The BEA appointed an Accredited Representative to represent France as the State of Design of the aeroplane, assisted by technical advisers from the aircraft manufacturer, Airbus. The NTSB (1) also appointed an Accredited Representative to represent the United States as the State of Manufacture of the engine.

France contributed to the safety investigation from the very outset. Initially, the BEA’s work consisted in acting as advisor to its Egyptian counterpart and then in participating in sea search operations for the aircraft wreckage. At the same time, the three States collaborated in collecting and analysing the first elements available - in particular the ACARS (2) messages.

Once the wreckage had been found, the debris was inspected and the flight recorders were located, retrieved and immediately sent to Cairo in order to start the initial work to recover and read the data. These operations, collectively decided on and carried out by the Egyptian, American and French specialists, did not succeed in reading the recorded data due to the severe damage to the data media. Advanced repair work was then necessary and the BEA was asked to carry it out in its laboratory in France.

The work on the flight recorders was carried out under the authority of the Egyptian Investigator In Charge, on the BEA premises, and at the beginning of July 2016 the data from the two flight recorders was extracted, read and decoded.

During this work, the Egyptian authorities published the following elements about the accident:

- The flight recorders stopped operating while the aircraft was in cruise at an altitude of 37,000 feet;

- The aircraft systems sent ACARS messages indicating the presence of smoke in toilets and the avionics bay;

- The data from the data recorder confirms these messages;

- The playback of the cockpit voice recorder reveals, in particular, that the crew mentioned the existence of a fire on board;

- Several pieces of debris were retrieved from the accident site. Some of these had signs of having been subject to high temperatures, and traces of soot.

Once the data from the flight recorders had been retrieved, the Egyptian authorities continued their work in Egypt.

In addition, the BEA had collected the following elements:

- A signal from an emergency locator transmitter was sent at 00:37 (source CNES (3) ) i.e. around eight minutes after the transmission of the last ACARS message;

- Data from a Greek primary radar (sent by the Greek authorities to the BEA) shows that the aeroplane had descended in a turn until collision with the surface of the water.

Based on these elements, the BEA considers that the most likely hypothesis is that a fire broke out in the cockpit while the aeroplane was flying at its cruise altitude and that the fire spread rapidly resulting in the loss of control of the aeroplane.

For its part, the BEA’s Egyptian counterpart announced in December 2016, the discovery of traces of explosive on human remains. It stated that, in accordance with Egyptian legislation, this finding led it to transfer the file to the Egyptian Attorney General who would from now on be responsible for carrying out the investigation.

The BEA’s proposals concerning further work on the debris and recorded data were not, as far as the BEA knows, followed up. The technical elements of the investigation already collected by Egypt, including those provided by the BEA, are protected by the Egyptian judicial investigation.

In an effort to continue the safety investigation mission, the BEA asked to meet the Egyptian Attorney General. This took place at the end of May 2018. In this meeting, the Egyptian authorities explained that as it had been determined that there had been a malicious act, the investigation now fell within the sole jurisdiction of the judicial authorities.

The BEA’s Egyptian counterpart did not publish the final report which would have allowed the BEA to set out its differences of opinion as authorized by the international provisions.

The BEA considers that it is necessary to have this final report in order to have the possibility of understanding the cause of the accident and to provide the aviation community with the safety lessons which could prevent future accidents.

As mentioned above, the BEA considers that the most likely hypothesis is the rapid spread of a fire and would like investigations into this hypothesis to be continued in the interests of aviation safety.

The BEA is ready to continue its collaboration with its Egyptian counterpart should the latter restart the safety investigation into this accident.



(1) National Transportation Safety Board: the BEA’s counterpart in the United States.

(2) ACARS: system for sending messages between the aeroplane and the operator, allowing, in particular, the transmission of information for maintenance operations.

(3) Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (National Centre for Space Studies.
In an AVHERALD (article=4987fb09) :
On May 20th 2016 The Aviation Herald received information from three independent channels, that ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) messages with following content were received from the aircraft:
00:26Z 3044 ANTI ICE R WINDOW
00:26Z 561200 R SLIDING WINDOW SENSOR
00:26Z 2600 SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE
00:27Z 2600 AVIONICS SMOKE
00:28Z 561100 R FIXED WINDOW SENSOR
00:29Z 2200 AUTO FLT FCU 2 FAULT
00:29Z 2700 F/CTL SEC 3 FAULT
no further ACARS messages were received.
Early May 21st 2016 the French BEA confirmed there were ACARS messages just prior to break down of communications, warning however that they are insufficient to understand the causes of the accident until flight data or cockpit voice recorders have been found.

As well as these ACARS messages we have the CVR. We know the pilots were fighting a fire with halon extinguishers to no avail. So all we have to ask ourselves is—what fire won’t go out with halon extinguishers? Answer: lithium battery/ oxygen fed or possibly both.

 

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