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Marwa Hamdy: Mom of three killed in jet crash
Marwa Hamdy: Mom of three killed in jet crash

Marwa Hamdy: Mom of three killed in jet crash

One of the two Canadians aboard the EgyptAir flight that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea was originally from Saskatoon.

A friend confirmed to Postmedia Friday that Marwa Hamdy, a businesswoman, was on Flight 804, which disappeared from radar screens between Paris and Cairo.

She was a “very attentive mother, kind, helpful… loved by everyone who knew her,” Haleh Banani told CTV News.

She was a “very attentive mother, kind, helpful… loved by everyone who knew her.”

Hamdy grew up in Saskatoon and moved to Cairo for post-secondary school. It was there where she got married and settled down, Banani said. She worked as a project manager for IBM.

Her sons are between the ages of 11 and 16, Postmedia reported. Banani said she’s impressed with how well Hamdy’s eldest son is handling news of his mother’s death.

“I think he’s being very hopeful,” she told the outlet. “He told me he needed to be strong for his younger brothers.”

EgyptAir said 30 Egyptians, 15 French passengers, two Iraqis, and one passenger from Britain, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were on board.

The scheduled flight left Charles de Gaulle at 11.09pm on Wednesday (10.09 BST) and radar shows it continued on its normal path over Italy and Greece before starting to cross the Mediterranean.

The last signal was picked up by Greek air traffic control at 2.27am (1.27am BST) and the country’s civil aviation ministry said the previously “jocund” pilot did not respond to contact attempts as the plane headed towards Egyptian airspace.

Egyptian authorities lost contact with the flight at around 2.30am (1.30am BST), 45 minutes before it was due to land at Cairo International Airport.

The Greek defence minister said the plane had been cruising at an altitude of 37,000ft when it started rapidly losing altitude, suddenly veering to the left and then making a full circle in the opposite direction immediately after it entered Egyptian airspace.

The aircraft dropped by 22,000ft to 15,000ft before contact was lost at around 10,000ft.

Smoke was detected on board moments before it plummeted into the sea, France’s BEA air accident investigation said.

Spokesperson Sebastien Barthe said the plane’s automatic detection system sent several messages, while industry publication Aviation Herald said sensors detected smoke in the toilet.

The revelation provoked widespread speculation of a fire but Mr Barthe said that although the messages “generally mean the start of a fire,” it was not proof.

“We are drawing no conclusions from this,” he added. “Everything else is pure conjecture.”

Egyptian authorities said they believe terrorism is a more likely explanation than mechanical failure, and some aviation experts have said the erratic flight suggests a bomb blast or a struggle in the cockpit.

But no conclusive evidence has been emerged and there has been no claim of responsibility by Isis or al-Qaeda, and a marked lack of “chatter” among jihadists.

Investigators have been looking into the background of the passengers and crew on board, while questioning staff at Charles de Gaulle Airport who had contact with the aircraft before it took off.

Meanwhile, the search for wreckage continues with planes and ships from Egypt, Greece, Britain, France, the US and Cyprus combing the eastern Mediterranean.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was due to meet family members of the passengers and crew on Saturday.

He said the meeting at the Foreign Ministry would be aimed at giving family members as much information as possible.

“The whole truth, nothing but the truth,” he added. “We owe it to the families.”

Agencies/Canadajournal




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