The grim reality of the loss of MS804 came at dusk with the evening memorial service organized by EgyptAir management and the Civil Aviation Ministry at the Mosheer Tantawi Mosque in the suburban Fifth Settlement.
While Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy officially invited “all Egyptians” to commemorate the victims of the disaster, the press was expressly barred and khaki-clad military police guarded the mosque’s massive blue tiled gates.
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail attended the service along with EgyptAir chairman Safwat Musallam and Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed.
On Sunday Fathy issued a statement that “expressed contempt for the international media coverage of the plane crash, rejected claims that Egypt might be at fault for the incident, and emphasized that thorough investigations are still underway.”
His sentiments were echoed in the mosque parking lot which was filled to capacity with microbuses that ferried the airline’s mechanical workers and ground staff from the airport to the mosque, and with Mercedes belonging to the company’s top management and figures from Egypt’s commercial and political elite.
“The plane was loaded and security inspected in Paris and it’s maddening that the world is talking about our airline as though it were responsible,” said Ahmed Haggagovic, the hipster host of Egypt’s top travel TV show “Haggagovic’s Safari.”
EgyptAir crew who attended the service said they were incensed at media reports that pilot Mohamed Said Shaker might have caused the crash either inadvertently by smoking in the cockpit or intentionally as a suicide mission.
“I knew the pilot very well, said Jihan, a 34 year old EgyptAir stewardess. “He had everything in life and was a kind man. Neither he nor his co-pilot smoked.”
The air stewardess insisted extraordinary circumstances had to be the cause of the crash.
“It just doesn’t make sense that this top line aircraft completely fails mid-flight,” said Jihan, who withheld her last name citing EgyptAir company policy.
Hassan Mahmoud, a 62 year old retired Egyptian airforce pilot agreed.
“The fact that the pilot did not signal any distress so close to Alexandria means this was a sudden event and, I’m sorry to say, most likely an act of destruction.”
In a sign that authorities in Cairo expect to be pursuing a terrorism investigation, Nabil Sabek, Egypt's top prosecutor, called Monday on his French counterpart to share all closed circuit video of the doomed aircraft recorded at Charles de Gaulle airport.
Sabek replaced the attorney general Hisham Barakat who was murdered by Islamist militants in the capital just under one year ago.
