It has emerged that EgyptAir officials were aware of threats to security.
The New York Times reports that the airline was aware that the jet that the EgyptAir jetliner that plunged into the Mediterranean on Thursday was once the target of political vandals. In a terrifying act of foreshadowing, the words “we will bring this plane down” were written in Arabic on the underside of the aircraft.
EgyptAir security officials say the threatening graffiti appeared about two years ago and was the work of aviation workers at Cairo Airport.
The officials who were questioned about the incident claimed the graffiti was linked to the domestic Egyptian political situation at the time rather than to a militant threat. Workers said they targeted that plane because the last letters in its registration bore resemblance phonetically to the name of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Similar graffiti against Mr. Sisi, a former general, was scrawled across Cairo after the military ousted the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.
Since the graffiti incident, EgyptAir has fired employees for political leanings, increased crew searches and added extra unarmed in-flight security guards.
