Trial Set to Begin for 2004 Sharm el-Sheikh Plane Crash

More than two decades after the tragic crash of an Egyptian budget airline near the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, which resulted in the deaths of 148 individuals, the former CEO of the airline is set to face trial in France. The proceedings against Mohamed Nour, a 71-year-old Egyptian, are scheduled to commence on November 24, as reported by the AFP news agency citing judicial sources. The majority of the victims were French nationals.

Nour, who once led Flash Airlines, is under investigation for manslaughter, with allegations suggesting that he employed former military pilots who lacked adequate training for commercial flights. The Boeing 737 aircraft crashed just three minutes after takeoff on January 3, 2004, claiming the lives of all 135 French passengers and 13 crew members. Over 500 relatives of the victims have registered as joint plaintiffs in the case.

The legal proceedings surrounding this case have been prolonged and complex. In 2007, a victims' association took the initiative to present an expert report that raised numerous allegations, including criticisms directed at the French aviation authority for approving the flight. An initial trial in France was dismissed in 2017, with the judiciary attributing the crash to pilot error. However, an appellate court reopened the investigation in 2019 and subsequently ordered the French state to pay EUR10,000 in damages to the victims' association due to delays in the legal process.

According to the French prosecutor's office, there were "numerous oversights and inaccurate calculations" by the two pilots, which they deemed the "direct cause" of the disaster. While the pilots possessed military experience, they were reportedly not sufficiently trained for operating a passenger aircraft. Nour has been under investigation for manslaughter since late 2021, with prosecutors accusing him of neglecting to consider the inadequate training of the pilots and the crew's fatigue.

A 2009 report highlighted that the pilot had endured strenuous shifts and unusually brief rest periods in the two weeks leading up to the incident, suggesting that fatigue may have played a significant role in the crash.