the aircraft with no damages to its structure. The Comets were sold to Dan-Air on 9 October. During the year, Boeing 737 Advanced entered the fleet. A serious accident involving a Boeing 707 took place on 25 Dec when a non-regular flight from Cairo to Tokyo crashed into a textile mill while on approach to Bangkok, killing all passengers and a crew of ; fatalities and injured people on the ground were also reported. Early in 1977, the first arrests related to the bribery case involving the Boeing order took place when a former pilot admitted he had been bribed for . In February, an agreement to lease Airbus A300B4 aircraft from Germanair and Trans European Airlines was signed. On 1 April, services to Abu Dhabi and Karachi were launched. The first A300 service flew the Cairo–Karachi route on 3 June. The lease conditions for the aircraft owned by Bavaria Germanair changed to a lease/purchase agreement. Egyptair eventually acquired the two leased A300B4 aircraft. On 21 February 1978, a Boeing 707 made an emergency landing at Sharjah Airport after hitting a flock of birds; the incident caused substantial damage to the fuselage and the engines. During 1979, A300B4-200s were ordered for million with a delivery span between September 1980 and September 1981; the carrier took options on more aircraft of the type. Financing for the firmly ordered aircraft was partly provided by the Midland Bank and the Dresdner Bank. At March 1980 the number of employees was 9,610 and the fleet consisted of two Airbus A300B4s, seven Boeing 707-320Cs, seven Boeing 737-200s and two Beech Barons. There was a major financial reorganisation in November 1980 when ownership of the company was shared by the National Bank of Egypt and the Misr Insurance Company. In 1981, options for two Airbus A300B4-200s were converted into a firm order. This took the count of A300 aircraft pending delivery to four. At November this year the airline had five aircraft of the type in the fleet, two of them leased. Another A300B4-200 was ordered in 1982. Overall, eight new Airbus A300B4s were introduced during the early 1980s. Three Boeing 767-200ERs (named "Nefertiti", "Nefertari" and "Tiye") were phased in during 1984. Two Boeing 767-300ERs (named "Tuthmosis III" and "Ramses II") were phased in during 1989. On 31 October 1999, "Tuthmosis III" crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 217 people on board. Egyptair is a