Egyptian film director loses 4 family members in crashed EgyptAir plane

May 20th, 2016

Awake Goy

Nourhan Magdi (TCP) : Egyptian film Director Othman Abu Laban announced on his Facebook page that he lost four members of his family on board of the crashed Egypt Air plane that went off the radar early Thursday, before the military found its debris Friday morning near Alexandria.

Four members of same family were on board of the crashed Egypt Air MS804 flight, photo courtesy of film director Othman Abu Laban

In his post, Abu Laban said his uncle Salah, his uncle’s wife Sahar Quweidar, his cousin Ghassan and his cousin’s wife Reem el-Sebaee were among the 56 passengers of the Cairo-bound aircraft MS804 that took off from Charle de Gaulle Airport in Paris Wednesday night.

He announced an absentee funeral prayer will be held after Friday prayer at Sultan Hussein Mosque in Heliopolis.

On Friday morning, the military announced that belongings of some passengers along with remains of the plane were found 290 kilometers north of Alexandria, and that search will continue for any other parts.

Greece, assisting Egypt in the search along with France, the U.K., Cyprus and Italy, announced quoting Egyptian officials that body parts and a seat of EgyptAir flight were found, reported Reuters.

Egyptian official statements were committed on Thursday to the professional term of “missing aircraft” in respect for families’ feelings. EgyptAir and the Presidency offered condolences Friday morning to the families, after the new updates on the found remains.

Social media was flooded with pictures of the crew members of the flight Thursday with sad farewell messages by their colleagues.

Among the crew members was Mervet Zakariya, who recently assumed the position of the head of the crew. Zakariya had an experience as an actress in 1985, when she participated in a TV series called “The Journey of Mr Abu el-Ela el-Beshry.”

Air hostess Samar Ezz el-Din, was among the 7-crew member on board of the ill-fated flight; she set her job status on her Facebook page as a flight attendant at EgyptAir in May 2014.

Profile picture from the Facebook page of hostess Samar Ezz el-Din who was a crew member on the crashed Egypt Air plane; the debris of the plane was found Friday, May 20, 2016.

Ezz El- Din has updated her profile picture several times with a photo of a hostess in wet clothes dragging her travel bag out of the sea with a crashed jet in the background.

Although the reason for the flight crash is still being investigated, both the abrupt cut with the ground contact and a Greek statement saying that the plane swerved and plunged steeply in the sea, have supported a strong indication of a terrorist attack.

During a Thursday press conference, the Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy denied ruling out any possible scenarios; however, he weighed in with a higher possibility for a “terrorist act” than a “technical error.”

No groups have claimed responsibility for the incident yet.

The flight had 66 people on board, including 7 crew members and three security personnel. EgyptAir confirmed the nationalities of the passengers as 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis and on passenger from the U.K., Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada and Belgium.

Nourhan Magdi, The Cairo Post