=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2004/01/09/i= nternational1246EST0600.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, January 9, 2004 (AP) Bulk of plane intact on sea bed, Egyptian aviation minister says (01-09) 09:46 PST CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Most of the fuselage of an Egyptian passenger plane that crashed in the Red Sea appears to be still intact, but searchers can't reach the deeply sunken wreckage until more advanced equipment arrives from France, Egypt's aviation minister said Friday. Ahmed Shafeeq said in a news conference that the fuselage is believed to be lying between 2,000 and 2,600 feet below the surface. The chartered Boeing 737 of Flash Airlines crashed Jan. 3 minutes after taking off from the south Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik, bound for Paris. All 148 people on board were killed, including 134 French citizens. Shafeeq said the plane's sudden disappearance from radar screens and the small scale of debris floating on the sea suggest the fuselage is relatively intact. He reiterated that there was no evidence of terrorism, saying the accident "is 100 percent because of a technical fault." "There is a major part of the plane still deep in the water, perhaps holding some of the victim's bodies," he said, but the fuselage's suspected depth is "beyond our current capabilities to retrieve." In the next few days, France is expected to send more advanced equipment, including a special submarine on loan from France-Telecom that can dive to 3,600 feet and can retrieve objects weighing from 220 to 1,100 pounds. The submarine is expected to be operational by Monday. Another French submarine and a robot owned by Comex, a French company specializing in underwater robotics, is scheduled to arrive by Jan. 15. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 AP