EgyptAir flight MS804 crash: Passenger 'lost passport' before flight but found it in time to board

Pascal Hess, a photographer and volleyball fan from Évreux in Normandy, France, is one of 56 passengers feared dead

Pascal Hess being interviewed for a local campaign in 2010

One of the passengers killed in the EgyptAir disaster lost his passport in the days before he was due to travel to Cairo, and nearly didn’t catch his flight, his friends have said.

But Pascal Hess, a photographer from Évreux in Normandy, found the document in time to board the plane that crashed into the Mediterranean sea on Wednesday night, killing 56 passengers, seven crew and three members of security staff.

“He didn’t sleep for three days, then someone found [the passport] in the street. It’s strange but he was hesitant to leave, without really knowing why” a friend of the 51-year-old told local newspaper La Dépêche.

The rock music photographer and keen volleyball supporter was on his way to Egypt to meet his friend Sébastien Salingue, a cartoonist from the same town working as a diving instructor at a Red Sea resort.

Mr Hess, known to his friends by the nickname Calou, had planned to stay with Mr Salingue for 10 days.

“Our friend, the photographer Pascal Hess. Kindness and talent [...] an adorable man” wrote a member of a local rock band on Facebook.

Victims of the EgyptAir flight MS804 crash

Family of Osman Abou Laban

Lebanese film director Osman Abou Laban said he lost four family members in the crash - his uncle, aunt, cousin and his cousin’s wife.

Mr Laban, 43, who is based in Cairo and directed mainly action films and TV series, posted photographs of his family members on Facebook and wrote a message wishing them peace.

Richard Osman

Richard Osman, 40, is believed to be one of the 56 passengers on board the flight from Paris to Cairo

Richard Osman, a geologist from Carmarthen in Wales, had just become a father for the second time and was on his way to Egypt for work.

Mr Osman’s brother, Alastair Osman, told ITV News: “Richard has two kids. Richard was a very kind person, loving person, very focused. He was a workaholic and never deviated from the straight path.

“I guess it was work related. He's been doing this for years in the gold mining industry. This was a regular trip. He used to do it at least once a month, year after year.”

Mr Osman is thought to have recently moved to Jersey with his French wife, Aurelie.

Marwa Hamdy

Marwa Hamdy (Facebook)

Marwa Hamdy, a Canadian IT executive who had relocated to Cairo, was the mother of three boys and had been visiting family in Paris.

“Her children's teachers and Hayah parents who know Marwa personally speak of her dedicated and supportive nature,” wrote the Hayah International Academy on Facebook.

“[She was] always there to offer a helping hand with a pure smile. Our heart and prayers go out to her and her family.”

Haleh Banani, a friend of Ms Hamdy’s from Texas, whose children attended the same school, told the National Post: “We’ve taken that flight so many times. I thought about friends who could be on there. It didn’t occur to me there could be someone we knew. It was heartbreaking it was a dear friend.”

Ahmed Helal

Ahmed Helal (Facebook)

Ahmed Helal, from Alexandria, Egypt, was a manager at a Procter and Gamble factory in Amiens, north France.

According to Mr Helal’s LinkedIn profile, he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the American University in Cairo.

Employees at the factory where he worked told French TV news channel BFM that he was very close to his team.

“He always started by saying, ‘you are my family’, and it came from the heart,” said one colleague. “His family must be so sad”.

A Family of four from Angers, France

Four members of a French-Algerian family from Angers, west France, are missing, including two young children, according to Le Figaro.

The father of the family sold fruit and vegetables at the town market, and one of their children was a baby of four months, according to the Mayor.

Their neighbours said the couple, in their 40s, had not had a holiday in a long time and had taken their children to Egypt to relax.

A vigil was held in memory of the family last night in an area of Angers called la Roseraie.

Unnamed victim from Chad

A spokesman for Chad’s embassy in France, Muhammed Allamine, told the BBC a Chadian citizen had been on board.

“He just lost his mother actually,” Mr Allamine said. “He was going to Chad to mourn his mother. He [was] going to give condolences to his family.”

Mr Allamine said the man had been a student at France’s leading military academy in Saint Cyr.

Joao David e Silva

Joao David e Silva, 62, was a Portuguese civil engineer, due to travel from Cairo to Accra in Ghana for a conference, according to Correio da Manha.

Portuguese media quote the government as saying the 62-year-old civil engineer was the only Portuguese passenger on the flight.

Sahar al-Khawaga

Ms al-Khawaga, a Saudi national who worked at her country’s embassy in Cairo, was one of the victims, according to Associated Press.

She had worked in Cairo for 13 years and had been following up on her daughter’s medical treatment in Paris.

Abdulmohsen al-Muteiri

Kuwait’s foreign ministry named Mr al-Muteiri, a Kuwaiti national, as one of the MS804 passengers, but did not give more details.

He was an economics professor and a father of two, who was travelling to Cairo for a three-day conference, according to the Guardian.