DEBKA is wrong some of the time so read this with a grain of salt:

Hours after an privately chartered Egyptian airplane crashed in the Red Sea at 04.44 local time on Saturday, January 3, just after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh, French Justice Minister Dominique Perben asked prosecutors to open a preliminary inquiry for manslaughter. The justice ministry in Paris said tactfully that the manslaughter inquiry “does not prejudge in any way the causes of the catastrophe,” but provides a legal framework for a joint French-Egyptian investigation.

There were no survivors of the 148 people aboard the plane, 13 of whom were crew and most of the others French tourists with their families, bound for Charles de Gaulle after a refueling stop at Cairo.

The Egyptians claimed that the crash of a Boeing 737, operated by the Egyptian company Flash Airlines, was “absolutely not the result of a terrorist act but is linked to a technical failure of the plane. DEBKAfile’s aviation experts say the investigators will be called upon to consider a host of anomalies and enigmas before they reach any such definite conclusion.

1. Was it a coincidence that the disaster occurred amid the heightened aviation alert that led to the cancellation of seven US-bound flights in the week from Christmas to January 2?

2. Updated intelligence reports have revealed one or more trained al Qaeda pilots penetrating international airlines in the Middle East or Europe and standing by for a chance – or an order - to hijack a passenger airliner.

3. Suggestively, the Egyptian plane vanished abruptly from radar screens before the air crew had a chance to send out a distress call or any other signal. It looked very much as though the craft had plummeted into the sea too suddenly for any warnings; it may even have exploded in midair before dropping into the water. In that case, the cause of the explosion would have to be investigated. An eyewitness said people heard a very loud noise at the time of the crash.

France is always quick to say that terrorism wasn't involved. If they admitted the possibility, they'd then have to answer for their lack of cooperation in the fight against terror.