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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be frightened to fly EgyptAir this summer?

86 replies

EddyF · 19/05/2016 13:08

Flights all booked and confirmed for me and 10 year old daughter for late June.

Did not book directly via site but third party. Stop-over will be at Cairo Intl Arpt for around 3hrs. Flying with EgyptAir. Going to Africa.

Would you fly after today's news?

OP posts:
mrgrouper · 19/05/2016 14:02

Personally I would not holiday in Egypt. I went to Cairo in 2013 and it was a sad and frightening place. I had to be accompanied by armed police to visit the Coptic Churches, which at the time I thought was unnecessary but a few days later a church was burnt down and stones were thrown at christians wanting to visit it. Half way through the holiday the Government declared the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist organisation and their members were to be sentenced to death. All hell broke loose with protests, bombs going off and shooting. It was absolutely terrifying and I got an emergency flight home. Egypt treats its citizens badly and I regret going.

specialsubject · 19/05/2016 14:02

Yes. Security will be higher. And if it is the same cause as the germanwings disaster there will be actions taken.

Very sad news.

28DegreesIsTooHot · 19/05/2016 14:06

It's awful but I see no greater danger in flying Egypt air than any other airline.
I'd still go.
I'm booked on ba flights this summer and I'm still anxious.

Queenbean · 19/05/2016 14:08

I wouldn't go to Egypt

But I wouldn't hesitate to fly with any airline, air travel is safer than ever even after these incidents

MardAsSnails · 19/05/2016 14:14

I wouldn't be flying in or out of Cairo. No fucking way. I've said this since DH had to go to Cairo for a series of meetings a while ago and was terrified the whole time.

A colleague of mine is from Alexandria and refuses to take his family home to see his (and his wife's) parents, as he wont fly his children into Egypt. Instead, he pays for them to visit him. In my eyes, that says it all.

I'd be honest, if I was you and could afford to change flights, I'd be looking at every possible alternative to having to go there.

WannaBe · 19/05/2016 14:15

I wouldn't travel to Egypt (tbh I wouldn't have even before it became unstable). But Egypt air is not going to be any less safe than any other airline. And as yet it cannot be known for certain whether it was a terrorist attack. TBH any air crash at this stage is automatically going to be assumed to be a terror attack until evidence to the contrary has been found. But I would have thought that if it was terrorism some organisation would have claimed responsibility by now....

grimupnorthLondon · 19/05/2016 14:17

Isn't it a question of flying through Cairo rather than the airline though? I thought the main concern was lax security at Egyptian airports meaning more opportunities for people to smuggle devices onto planes

Puzzledandpissedoff · 19/05/2016 14:46

I thought the main concern was lax security at Egyptian airports meaning more opportunities for people to smuggle devices onto planes

So did I - and if my recent visit to Egypt was anything to go by, those concerns are fully justified. A lot seemed to be done for appearances' sake with arm-waving and shouting everywhere, but when you see person after person set off a (clearly faulty) security device with absolutely nothing done, and watch the X ray machine operators chatting happily with their back to the screen, that warm fuzzy "safe feeling" wears a bit thin Hmm

howtorebuild · 19/05/2016 14:50

I wouldn't touch the place with a barge pole at the moment, and I have visited there more than once.

Capricorn76 · 19/05/2016 15:10

I've been there and had a good time. I wouldn't catch a flight that stopped there now. Seems like anybody can just rock up and plant a device on a plane.

MummyBex1985 · 19/05/2016 15:13

I wouldn't go to Egypt or fly EgyptAir either.

Unfortunately I doubt your travel insurance would cover attempted cancellation, but if it was me and my 10 yo DD, I'd be cancelling regardless.

TheDuchessOfArbroathsHat · 19/05/2016 15:14

It is interesting to note where else that plane had been in it's last 24 hours - Chad and Eritrea amongst the locations. I think it's going to become more important to people to know where their planes have been because any transit through countries with poor to zero security is going to be a problem.

Roonerspism · 19/05/2016 15:15

But this particular flight flew out of France.

So if there is terrorism involved, then this extends far beyond Egypt as a country.

We need to look at airport security more generally.

But no - I wouldn't go anywhere near Cairo right now, even as a stopover

TheNaze73 · 19/05/2016 15:16

I work with an Egyptian guy & he won't fly home. He buys tickets for his parents to visit him & is trying to get them to move over here. That says it all to me

TheDuchessOfArbroathsHat · 19/05/2016 15:21

Exactly Rooner - the flight went out of France and it was unlikely to have been tampered with there because European airport security is pretty tight. Other countries - unstable countries where airport workers are paid peanuts - the opportunities for loading a device onto a plane there are much much greater.

exLtEveDallas · 19/05/2016 15:50

I am holidaying in Egypt this year. My stomach gave a lurch when I heard the news this morning, but I have reminded myself that I am in more danger travelling to work every day.

I wouldn't however fly into Cairo. DD had asked if we could go back to the pyramids this year but I'm not happy to do so.

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 19/05/2016 15:53

I wouldn't be flying to/from Egypt now... Or any airline that flies in and out of airports with lax security

LeaveTheBastardingBastard · 19/05/2016 15:57

Fucking hell your brave.

manicinsomniac · 19/05/2016 16:01

I don't know whether YANBU to be scared to fly. Personally I'm terrified almost to the point of phobia of flying (not actually a phobia because I do fly if my destination is too far for any other means of transport). I always have an absolute conviction that the plane will crash and I can't shake it. However, there is a part of me that knows, logically, that this so so so so unlikely and I don't even consider the dangers of car, train or coach travel so ...

I do think YABU to be more afraid of egyptair than any other airline. It's not more likely to happen to another of their planes than any other reputable airline.

I understand it though. I flew AirFrance to Sao Paulo a few months after that crash and I had nightmares for weeks.

One thing I don't really get about recent crashes is that they all seem to be disappearances mid flight. Until the last couple of years they mainly seemed to happen on take off and landing. Or that's the way it seemed to me. Someone once told me that take offs only happen at take off and landing and it's almost impossible for a plane to fall out of the sky. I believed that for years Blush and it made me refer longhaul flights as I thought there was less danger. Very definitely proved not to be the case now hasn't it!!

Bigfam · 19/05/2016 16:04

Not high jacking thread, just have a similar question. Is sharm el sheikh safe at the moment? My df is flying there beginning of June, I'm so worried. He doesn't share my concern

waterfallsandmountains · 19/05/2016 16:12

I don't think that anyone, not even Frank Gardner, could claim that anywhere especially in that part of the world was safe Sad

KatharinaRosalie · 19/05/2016 16:14

Someone once told me that take offs only happen at take off and landing and it's almost impossible for a plane to fall out of the sky - well, while not totally impossible but just 10% of crashes happen during the cruise phase.

CaveMum · 19/05/2016 16:15

Accidents are statistically more likely to happen during take off and landing. Mid-air incidents tend to have other contributing factors - hijack, bomb/missile, pilot suicide, etc. Technical failures in mid-flight don't tend to cause catastrophes.

The odds of an aircraft just crashing to the ground mid-flight for no reason are incredibly high.

exLtEveDallas · 19/05/2016 16:16

Sharm el sheik itself is as safe as it's ever been, FCO advice is that the tourist resorts are OK, but they advise against flight in to SelS airport - hence all the Brit travel agents cancelling flights.

Lots of people have taken instead to flying into Hurganda (which is perfectly safe) and then coaching it to SelS - bloody horrible journey though.

We are going to Hurghada in the Summer and Xmas (unless the FCO advise against it). I trust their judgement.

lem73 · 19/05/2016 16:21

Emm...the flight flew out of Paris so I don't understand why the Egyptians are getting the blame IF it is a bomb. Egyptair does have an appalling safety record though. I think the Egyptian government is actually claiming terrorism to deflect attention away from that fact and direct blame towards the French.