In the worst accident in the MFO's history, one Canadian and eight French peace-keepers were killed in a plane crash in Sinai, reports Amirah Ibrahim A commission of 17 French aviation experts from the French Defence Ministry's Air Accidents Investigation Bureau joined an Egyptian civil aviation team in investigating the deadly crash of a peace-keepers' aircraft in Sinai this week. While foul play is not suspected, there are questions about the pilot's performance as well as the aircraft's technical condition. Egyptian aviation officials suggested that the crash might have been caused by the pilot's failure to respect minimum flight altitudes. "Flying over the mountainous area of Sinai is restricted in order to ensure the safety of navigation," explained Major General Navigator Ahmed Said, chairman of Air Navigation Company. "Pilots should not fly lower than 10,000 feet, because of the mountains such as St Catherine which is more than 2km in altitude. The pilot did not respect these restrictions, perhaps because of an emergency or due to lack of training," he added. The plane, a DHC-6 Twin Otter which transported Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) personnel between the force's northern and southern camps in Sinai, was on a training mission for the French contingent. Egyptian navigation records show that the plane faced some problems during its flight. "The plane took off from Al-Gurah airport in northern Sinai at 7:45am local time, and was heading for St Catherine airport. It disappeared from the radar after the two pilots reported a technical problem with the engines," Air Navigation Spokesman Ihab Mohieddin told the press. He added that the plane lost contact with the control tower. At 9am, the police reported a crash on the Ras Naqab- Nikhel road. According to eyewitnesses, the plane was attempting to carry out an emergency landing on the road when its wing collided with a Jordanian truck. "The plane rose again but crashed into a nearby mountain called Jabal Al-Barrad," a Bedouin observer told the police. The wreckage was strewn over 10km. Four bodies were found burnt in the plane, while the other five were scattered in the nearby mountainous area. The Jordanian truck was also set ablaze. "I saw the plane coming down and very close. We jumped out of the truck," Mohamed Abdallah, the Jordanian driver said. "When I got to my feet again, I saw that the truck was on fire and that the plane was attempting to take off again, with only one wing. A few minutes later, I heard the explosion and saw the flames coming from behind the nearby mountain." In 1979, following the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, the United Nations handed over the peace-keeping mandate on the Sinai Peninsula to the US Sinai Field Mission. The terms of the treaty required the presence of international peace-keepers to ensure that both Israel and Egypt kept to the provisions regarding military build-up along the border. In August 1981 Egypt, Israel and the US signed a protocol to the Treaty of Peace, establishing the MFO. The protocol set out four zones -- A, B, C in Sinai and D in Israel -- and the equipment allowed in each zone. The MFO has its headquarters in Rome and two regional offices in Cairo and Tel Aviv, while the force itself is based in Zone C. The force consists of about 2,000 soldiers from 11 countries: Australia, Canada, Colombia, Fiji, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, the United States and Uruguay, and operates checkpoints and observation posts, performs patrols and implements various technical and military aspects of the peace treaty. After an agreement signed in 2005 between Egypt and Israel, the MFO was charged with monitoring the deployment of Egyptian border guards along the frontier with the Gaza Strip. The latest death toll is the worst since the MFO was established. Last year, a bomber blew himself up as vehicles carrying an Egyptian police officer and MFO peace-keepers passed near the force's base at Al-Gurah, causing no causalities. Two Canadian members of the force were wounded in August 2005 when a bomb exploded in Al-Gurah as their vehicle drove by, days after multiple bomb attacks hit the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and left some 70 people dead.
