Canyons, currents and sharks
2004-01-04 16:03
Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt - Rescue teams probing a plane crash in Egypt's Red Sea on Sunday faced only a minor threat from sharks but a more daunting challenge from strong currents and underwater canyons.
"We can't deny it's a difficult environment," Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafik told reporters.
The charter plane carrying 148 people, mainly French tourists, crashed before dawn on Saturday in water about 5km south of the airport at Sharm el-Sheikh, just minutes after taking off, Shafik said.
He suspected the main body of the Boeing 737 plane lay on the seabed about 300m underwater, although French officials sent a submarine robot they said can work well within those depths.
In addition to the robot, France also sent a team of navy divers, a military aircraft to take part in the Egyptian-led search for the human and other remains of the Paris-bound plane.
The challenge comes from both fast-moving currents picking up debris and bodies as well as deep canyons, which can plunge to 1 400m, according to diving experts in the resort at Sharm el-Sheikh.
"Sharks do not represent a major threat for divers," according to Commander Xavier de Sontenay, France's naval attache in Egypt who is taking part in the Egyptian-led search.
"Hundreds of people dive every day without an accident. It's a factor that must be taken into consideration, but it is not a major one," he told AFP.
He estimated the plane crashed in around 150m of water, as opposed to 300m mentioned by the Egyptians, but the terrain was very uneven.
"Contrary to the Atlantic where we have such depths (of 150 meters) over immense plateaus, in the Red Sea, as in the Mediterranean, we can very quickly have much greater depths," he said.
He said the problem was compounded by the presence of strong currents produced by the Tiran Straits.
He added that divers needed sophisticated back-up to probe the area.
The French naval attache added it was possible many of the bodies were still strapped into their seats if the main body of the plane sank to the bottom in one piece, but he could not confirm this had happened.
Egyptian officials quoted witnesses as reporting the plane was intact when it hit the water.
Stefan Riedle, a German diver working in Sharm el-Sheikh, estimated the depth of the crash site to be more than 200 meters deep, though he added canyons just to the north could be as deep as 1 400m.
Such terrain requires very experienced divers backed up by advanced equipment, he added. At such depths divers must make fine adjustment to gases with their diving gear.
Riedle, the manager of the Werner Lau dive centre, also dismissed the threat of sharks.
"There are sharks, even tiger sharks in the area, but we have never had shark attacks," he said.
He expected sharks would shy away from teams of divers with noisy equipment.