The doomed EgyptAir jetliner made three emergency landings in the 24 hours preceding its crash, according to a report by a French broadcaster on Thursday that was later denied by the airline company.
The Airbus A320 that plunged into the Mediterranean Sea last month with 66 people aboard was forced to land shortly after takeoff three times while flying between Eritrea, Egypt, Tunisia and Paris, according to France 3.
However, EgyptAir’s chairman denied that the airliner had sent a series of technical warnings in the 24 hours before it disappeared from radar screens.
“For me it is not true,” Safwat Musallam said during the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Dublin when asked about the French report, according to Reuters.
Musallam said Flight 804 had not experienced any maintenance issues before departure and that the plane was “normal.”
“We fully trust the aircraft and the pilot,” he said.
The France 3 report said the plane’s Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, sent signals indicating a problem, prompting the pilots to turn around.
The plane was checked on the ground each time but no problem was found so the flights were allowed to take off again, according to France 3