May 22, 2016: Current Events — Egypt Air — Was it an onboard fire that spread quickly and brought the AirBus down? Was something planted on jet while on the ground at CDG that initiated the fire?
The real message from the Egypt Air Flight 804 incident this week is: US travelers should avoid using Charles De Gaulle Airport for connecting flights to other world destinations. Plenty of other “safer” airports to use — the French themselves admit they have security issues at CDG (with this coming summer being especially vulnerable with a major world soccer competition in Paris). The huge confusing airport and airlines employ over 80,000 people to operate the facility — with a good number of lower level service employees coming from countries on high level security and terrorism watch — recently the airport dismissed more than 50 workers who, after being employed and given access to a wide range of airport facilities, could not pass security clearance — read this sentence again — they had been employed and were working at the airport without proper security vetting. On the TC’s recent transit through CDG, I observed very little visible security — like military or police uniforms with big guns — unlike Heathrow and Milan Malpensa where security is “overly visible” and seems to be working. Visit Paris if you must — but avoid CDG if you can!