Security officials said those procedures would have applied to the EgyptAir plane during short layovers it made at two African airports in Tunis and the Eritrean capital,
Asmara in the days before the crash. But the procedure is different in Paris because European airports do not permit EgyptAir security officials to search local cleaning workers, a source ofdisgruntlement among Egyptian officials who feel they are being discriminated against.
Colleagues described the security guards who died in Thursday's crash Walid ouda, Mohammed Farag and Mahmoud el Sayed-as professionals who had exhib ited no signs of unusual behaviour. They described Farag as a lighthearted man who was often teased by friends for not having married, while Ouda cut a more taciturn figure and was polite to a fault.
Friends and relatives also presented a uniformly untroubled picture of the pilot Capt. Mohamed Shoukair, 36, and his co pilot, Mohamed Mamdouh Assem, 24.
An EgyptAir pilot, who spoke on con- dition of anonymity, said he had worked with both and described them as profes- sional aviators who had not exhibited any mental or social problems.At 24 years of age, Assem was the average age of many copilots at the airline, he said.
EgyptAir crew members have been subjected to much stricter security measures since the crash of the Russian jetliner in October, said the pilot, who described the procedures before that crash as lax.
The new procedures include personal searches that have prevented crew members from smuggling cigarettes or currency, he said.
The graffiti about Mr el-Sissi occurred several times for about two years after Mr Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, was removed as president in July 2013. At the time, it was taken as a sign of the country's bitter political divide rather than a directed threat against the plane. Nonetheless, over that period, EgyptAir fired a number of employees, mostlymem bers of the ground staff, who were pre sumed to be sympathisers of the Muslim Brotherhood, security officials said. Similar purges took place in other companies in Egypt at the time. More recently, fears of terrorism have of tightened security at regional airports, including Tunis, where the Airbus A320 had travelled just before its trip to Paris,
the pilot said. Foreign flight crews face new restrictions on their movements and are now prevented, for example, from leaving the plane to buy items in the duty-free shop, he said.
EgyptAir flights headed to Europe also face added scrutiny under a European Union programme known as SAFA, or Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft, which allows for spot inspections of air planes at European airports and penalties for violations.
Although Egyptian society has been divided in the turmoil that followed the ouster of Hosni Mubarakin 2011, there has been a tangible sense ofnational solidarity since Thursday's crash Images of grieving relatives have domi nated news coverage. As the official crash investigation starts, many Egyptians have reacted furiously to any suggestion that the airline crew bore any responsibility. Ezzat Shoukair, a cousin of the captain said he was distressed by some of the cov- erage. "Don't listen to the lies people have been saying since the crash," he said, weep- ing as he spoke. THE NEW YORK TIMES