On January 3, 2004, Flash Airlines Flight FSH604 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh.
Following the crash, a spokesperson for Switzerland's Federal Office for Civil Aviation said that inspections in April and October 2002 had revealed safety glitches on Flash Airlines' planes, and since Flash did not respond to these concerns, the airline was no longer permitted to fly to or over Switzerland. However, Egypt's Civil Aviation ministry called the Swiss accusations baseless, and said it had inspection documents proving Flash Airlines' planes were safe. Finnish National Airline Department granted Flash Airlines a permission to do charter flights from Finland to Egypt in September 2003, because (according to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat) the warning e-mail from Switzerland got to a wrong folder in an e-mail client.
External links