‘Uncontrollable’ Plane Crash Caused by Oxygen Leak, Says Court

An oxygen leak likely caused the fatal crash of an EgyptAir aircraft almost a decade ago, which killed all 66 people on board, an inquest has heard.

On May 18, 2016, Richard Osman, 40, a geologist from Carmarthen in Wales, was among the 59 passengers traveling on EgyptAir flight MS804 heading from Paris, France, to Cairo in Egypt, the BBC reported. Two flight crew members and five cabin attendants had also been on the aircraft at the time, the outlet stated. 

There were no survivors when the plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in the early hours of the morning on May 19, 2016, per a Prevention of Future Deaths report released by the U.K.’s Courts and Tribunals Judiciary on Thursday, July 3.

The report stated that an inquest, which ended on May 2, had found that a fire onboard, likely caused by an oxygen leak, had resulted in the fatal incident.

“Richard Osman was a passenger onboard commercial flight MS804 [traveling] from Paris to Cairo which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May 2016 following a fire onboard caused by an ignition source of unknown origin most likely associated with the first officer’s oxygen supply system, which either resulted from or was fed by an oxygen leak,” the report noted.

Osman had been on a business trip at the time, per the report, which was filed by coroner Mark Layton. His cause of death was listed as an “air incident.”

“As the aircraft was flying over the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, a fire broke out on the flight deck rendering the flight deck environment uninhabitable and causing the aircraft to be uncontrollable resulting in a crash. There were no survivors,” the report, which was dated June 5, stated.

The coroner voiced multiple concerns in the report, including urging officials to undertake a full review of cockpit fire and smoke procedures by carrying out procedures including immediately cutting off an oxygen supply when a fire is recognized, installing or carrying protective equipment to deal with cockpit fires, and a review of the effectiveness of Halon fire extinguishers to deal with onboard fires.

The coroner also said “a review of regulations to prevent the use of cigarettes in the cockpit and related flammable items and materials” was among the matters of concern, per the inquest findings.

According to the BBC, Osman was working and living in Jersey — the largest of the Channel Islands, located between England and France — with his wife Aurelie Vandeputte and their two young daughters at the time of his death.

During the inquest in May, the coroner rejected a report by an Egyptian investigator that suggested that there may have been a deliberate explosion onboard, per Sky News. He agreed with a British expert at the time, stating that he believed the fire could have been started by a leak at an oxygen mask in the cockpit, the outlet noted.

He said the inquest had been delayed for so long because authorities were waiting for all the evidence in the case to be presented, Sky News reported.

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Osman’s widow, Vandeputte, said at the inquest that her late husband was “loved and appreciated” by his family, per the outlet.

The coroner extended his “heartfelt condolences” to the victim’s family during the inquest and thanked Vandeputte for “patience and understanding over the many, many years it has taken to reach this stage,” Sky News noted.