Seven minutes before contact was lost with Egyptair flight 804, a sequence of automatic messages were sent from the doomed aircraft that indicate multiple issues on board – possibly including fire in a lavatory and the main electronics bay.
No distress calls were made from the Airbus A320 before it crashed in the Mediterranean. All 66 people on board the flight from Paris to Cairo are presumed to have died.
The French accident investigators confirmed the content of electronic messages transmitted to Egyptair’s engineering base from the aircraft.
They were revealed overnight by the Aviation Herald, which is regarded as a serious and credible site. It says it received details of messages sent by the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (“Acars”) from three independent sources.
Seven messages were received in the course of three minutes, starting at 2.26am Cairo time. Three concern window sensors, while two mention smoke in a lavatory and in the avionics bay, which is underneath the flight deck.
If a fire took hold on board, investigators will assess whether it was caused by an electrical fault or whether human intervention was involved, such as an incendiary device on the aircraft.
Smoke indications can also be triggered by other factors, for example condensation in the event of a sudden decompression.
The final two messages refer to faults with the flight control computers. They were sent four minutes before contact was lost with the aircraft’s transponder, which relays details of the aircraft and its location.
Acars reports are short text messages sent to the airline engineering base and the aircraft manufacturer.
They are intended to inform ground staff about the status of the aircraft and any anomalies that need to be addressed upon arrival.
They are not designed to relay alarms to the ground, though when Air France 447 crashed in the Atlantic en route from Rio to Paris in 2009 a sequence of Acars messages indicated extreme conditions aboard the Airbus A330 as it plunged into the ocean.
