Flash Airlines

Flash Airlines

IATA - ICAO FSH Callsign FLASH
Founded	1995
Ceased operations	March 2004
Hubs	Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport
Fleet size	2
Destinations
Parent company	Flash Group
Headquarters	Cairo, Egypt
Website	www.flashtour.com/airline

Flash Airlines was a private charter airline operating out of Cairo, Egypt that was part of the Flash Group tourism company. The airline operated two Boeing 737-3Q8 aircraft manufactured in 1993 on non-scheduled commercial passenger flights on both international and domestic routes.^{[citation needed]}

History

A Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300 at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France. (2003)

The airline was established in 1995 as Heliopolis Airlines. It received its certificate of operation from the Egyptian authorities in 1996. It became a member of the Flash group in 2000. During that year Flash Airlines had one 737-300 with another that joined in 2002.

In 2002 Swiss aviation authorities performed a surprise inspection on SU-ZCF, a Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300. They discovered missing pilot oxygen masks, a lack of oxygen tanks, and inoperable cockpit instruments. The Swiss grounded the aircraft until Flash repaired the plane. Several days later Switzerland banned Flash. In addition, Poland banned Flash. Tour operators in Norway ceased contracting with Flash. The crash of Flight 604 led to an investigation that exposed poor safety measures and helped lead to the folding of Flash.

Fleet

Flash Airlines

The Flash Airlines fleet consisted of the following aircraft during operations:

Aircraft	Registration	Delivered	Exited	Fate
Boeing 737-3Q8	SU-ZCF	22 July 2001	3 January 2004	Crashed as Flash Airlines Flight 604
Boeing 737-3Q8	SU-ZCD	16 February 2002	5 March 2004	Became N271LF with ILFC

Heliopolis Airlines

The Heliopolis Airlines fleet consisted of the following aircraft before merging into Flash group:

Aircraft	Registration	Delivered	Exited	Fate
Airbus A310-222	SU-ZCC	27 October 1997	26 August 1999	Became N453FE with FedEx Express
Boeing 737-3Q8	SU-ZCE	21 April 2000	17 May 2000	Became N221LF with ILFC
Boeing 737-3Q8	SU-ZCF	23 June 2001	22 July 2001	Stayed as SU-ZCF with Flash Airlines
Boeing 737-3Q8	SU-ZCD	16 February 2000	27 August 2000	Stayed as SU-ZCD with Ecoair International
McDonnell Douglas MD-83	SU-ZCA	23 August 1996	13 February 1998	Became HK-4137X with Avianca

Accidents and incidents

A memorial for Flash Airlines Flight 604 in Paris, France.

In 2003,a passenger reported flames from an engine. On 3 January 2004, Flash Airlines Flight 604, using the 737-300 aircraft SU-ZCF, crashed into the Red Sea shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh. All passengers and crew died.

Following the crash, a spokesman for Switzerland's Federal Office for Civil Aviation said that inspections in April and October 2002 had revealed safety glitches on Flash Airlines's aircraft, and since Flash did not respond to these concerns, the airline was no longer permitted to fly to or over Switzerland. Finnish National Airline Department granted Flash Airlines a permission to do charter flights from Finland to Egypt in September 2003, because (according to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat) the warning e-mail from Switzerland got to a wrong folder in an e-mail client.

External links

• Flash Group official website (now known as Flash International)
• Flash Airlines official website at the Wayback Machine
• Flash Airlines crash article
• Flash Airlines accident report