 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A mismanaged disaster
According to US rescuers, hopes are diminishing that even the remains of the victims of the ill-fated EgyptAir flight 990 will be recovered. Our sympathy now goes out to all families who lost loved ones.Unfortunately, in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, some local officials were too quick in their judgments, and a number of mistakes were made. A number of scenarios were ruled out immediately, though in the US the investigators insist that they cannot exclude any possibility until the investigation is complete. And it is the cautious approach of the investigators which appears the more seemly approach under the circumstances.
As news of the disaster began to filter through, families of those on the flight rushed to the EgyptAir office at Cairo Airport in search of information. They were greeted by a handful of inexperienced employees who were armed only with a list of those who had booked seats, and not those who had actually boarded.
Meanwhile, the doctors and nurses employed by EgyptAir at the "information centre" had been provided only with tranquilizers and oxygen masks. In the US, by contrast, a hot-line was opened immediately for the families of passengers, and psychiatrists and clergymen of all religions were available to all families.
The reporters and cameramen who rushed to the Cairo airport in a media feeding frenzy behaved with crass insensitivity. As soon as the relations of the victims approached the information centre, they were besieged by reporters and enveloped in flashing cameras, desperate to capture their grief on film.
It would have been kinder had EgyptAir organised a more private place where relatives could have received the devastating news that family members had been lost in the disaster, rather than placing them in the position where a very private grief was placed on display for public consumption. It can surely have come as no surprise to anyone, least of all those members of the media present, that they were treated with undisguised hostility.
