Nine dead as French military aircraft crashes in Egypt's Sinai

CAIRO: Nine members of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) peacekeeping mission were killed when a French military plane crashed in Egypt's northern Sinai region Sunday, an Egyptian official said.   

"Nine people on board the plane died in the crash. This included eight French crew members," the security official said. MFO and French military sources said they had received reports that a French transport aircraft belonging to the peacekeeping force had crashed but did not immediately confirm any casualties.   

Egypt's civil aviation ministry confirmed the crash but had no details as a rescue team was still on its way to the site. "Yes, unfortunately we have had reports of a plane crash. It was a French aircraft carrying eight French crew members. There was one other officer on board whose identity we are still trying to get," the MFO director general's representative, Normand St. Pierre, said.   

"It was a training mission and we lost touch with the plane shortly after takeoff," he said.   

The plane was heading from the northern Sinai airport of Al-Gurah towards St. Catherine, further south.   

"The aircraft is a twin engine transport plane which carries out liaison missions and constitutes France's contribution to the force," a French military source in Cairo said.   

"We cannot confirm any deaths for the moment, the teams are on their way," he added.   

The MFO is an independent peacekeeping force not related to the United Nations, created as a result of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and funded mainly by the two neighbours and the United States.   

The approximately 2,000-strong military force was set up in 1982 and includes troops from 11 different countries, including a large US contingent. It is based in two camps in the Sinai peninsula.