An airport employee at Roissy Charles de Gaulle is said to be devastated after helping a family with five children board the doomed EgyptAir flight after a late arrival at the wrong terminal.
Earlier today, the EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo was located near the Greek island of Karpathos.
Egyptian aviation officials confirmed that the wreckage was that of theEgyptAir plane carrying 66 passengers and crew that disappeared earlier Thursday morning in the region of the Greek Dodecanese islands.
Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation Sherif Fathi yesterday formed an Investigation Committee in charge of the EGYPTAIR flight MS 804
— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 20, 2016
The airport employee, named in media as Sonia, is yet to receive confirmation as to whether or not the family made or missed the flight. Speaking to RTL radio, the woman told of how she helped the family in the airport:
“It was a family, parents with five children: four girls and a boy. They turned up at Terminal 2, where I work. But EgyptAir operates from Terminal 1, so I showed them how to get there.
“The father was started [sic] to get stressed because he could see the time and that they had been mistakenly dropped off at Terminal 2 by the taxi.
“I could see the dad was stressed so I said: ‘Don’t worry, I’ll try and call the company to see if they can exceptionally wait for you’. That’s something I never normally do.”
Debris and belongings from #EgyptAir plane found in the sea, officials say https://t.co/EEhRDFwQxR
Latest video: https://t.co/WnjYeWJCnc
— Bloomberg (@business) May 20, 2016
She put in a call and told them to hurry to Terminal 1, but didn’t follow up to see what happened next.
According to EygptAir flight check-in records, only one child and two babies boarded EgyptAir flight MS804, which would suggest that the family didn’t make the flight.
The airport worker Sonia said: “I hope they didn’t make it. One of the girls even said to her father, ‘Listen dad, if we make it, we make it and if we don’t, we’ll just take the next one. That’s all there is to it’.
“I understood as I’m of North African origin. I keep playing yesterday’s scene over, and I’m in shock.”
