If the disappearance of EgyptAir flight MS804 is discovered to be the work of terrorists, it will be the
fourth attack in the past year on air travelers in North African and Middle-Eastern countries.
The plane crisscrossed the Middle East, Africa and Europe. From its hub in Cairo, it flew to Brussels and back on Tuesday, followed by a round-trip to Asmara, Eritrea, in East Africa. On Wednesday, it flew in and out of Tunis before traveling to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and left again for Cairo that evening with 66 passengers and crew, according to flight records.
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Metrojet Flight 9268 - Russia confirmed bomb caused downed plane in Egypt, Oct. 31, 2015
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The investigation
involves passenger screening, baggage and cargo, starting with Paris and extending to all the airports.
French authorities are checking surveillance footage at Charles de Gaulle, focusing specifically on who had contact with the aircraft and the baggage loaded onto the plane. From cabin cleaners and caterers to pilots and passengers, hundreds of people were close enough to the plane to be dangerous.
Stamping Out Corruption
The airport tragedy in Brussels in March raised red flags on the lack of security for Africa and Middle-Eastern aviation.
At least two of the previous attacks in the region were said by local authorities to involve airport employees who used their positions to bypass security, including October's bombing of a jet carrying Russian tourists home from an Egyptian beach resort and an incident in February where explosives in a laptop blew a hole in a Somali plane.
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Shortly after leaving Mogadishu Airport a loud bang was heard in the cabin. There was a loss of pressurization and the plane made an emergency landing back at the airport. A large hole was observed in the side of the fuselage. A bomb inside a laptop was detonated in the cabin. The bomber was sucked out of the plane and killed. Feb. 2, 2016.
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Before the October 31st bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268, which was flying from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, to Saint Petersburg, Russia, Security guards at Sharm el-Sheikh airport
took cash from tourists to help them skip security. Airport employees are suspected of helping terrorists plant a bomb on the plane.
The al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia used similar tactics to slip a bomb aboard Daallo Airlines Flight 3159 in Mogadishu on February 2nd. An explosive inside a laptop blew out the side of the plane as it was climbing to cruise altitude, killing the man who had carried it aboard. The Airbus A321 stayed intact and pilots landed safely a short time later.
The Nigerian newspaper
This Day reported that corruption is rampant among its airport security and check points that could allow terrorists gain entry to the terminals.
"It calls into question the airports in that region," said John Halinski, the former deputy administrator of the US Transportation Security Administration. "It's something that needs to be looked at not just in those countries, but in any country that flies into that country."
Sabotaging Planes At The Airport
It is hard to get an explosive device through security, but it's not that hard to get a job at the airport
said Jeffrey Price, author of several certification programs on aviation security and airport management.
0n March 7th, another bomb in a laptop exploded as a crowd was being examined at a security checkpoint at the Beledweyne airport in central Somalia, injuring several people, according to news reports.
EgyptAir Was Aware of Threats to Security, Including One Scribbled on PlaneIronically, the EyptAir jetliner that plunged into the Mediterranean on Thursday was
once the target of political vandals who wrote in Arabic on its underside, "We will bring this plane down."
The threatening graffiti, which appeared about two years ago, had been the work of aviation workers at Cairo Airport. The graffiti had been linked to the domestic Egyptian political situation at the time rather than to a militant threat.
