In Egypt, the “Prayer for the Absentees” of Flight MS804 Still Resonates
Faith and Social Media Provide Comfort to Egyptians Mourning the EgyptAir Tragedy
When the news arrived that EgyptAir flight MS804 was missing, I was sitting in an ahwa, a small traditional local café, having morning coffee with two of my closest friends in Cairo: Aly Hamza, a law student, and Omar Hossam, a 23-year-old pilot.
Such a scene is familiar to Egyptians. And so was the bad news. This was the third instance of aviation disaster for Egypt in the past year, after the October 2015 explosion that brought down the Russian Metrojet leaving the Sinai and the hijacking of an EgyptAir flight …