that month, the first Tu-154 entered the fleet and was used for pilot training. From Moscow, the handover of the Tu-154s was made through London-Heathrow, where these aircraft were fitted with British-made seats. The outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 had forced the carrier to suspend the Tokyo service; it was resumed on 15 March 1974 via Bombay, Bangkok and Manila. During 1974, the flight to Khartoum was extended to Kinshasa. One of the brand new Tu-154 aircraft, SU-AXB, on 10 July 1974 after takeoff from Cairo International Airport during a training flight, killing a crew of on board. Following the crash Egyptair requested the return of its Tu-154 fleet to the Soviets and a refund for the price paid for them. The capacity shortage caused by the grounding of the Tu-154s was partly alleviated by the lease of aircraft. The airline had already been looking for other aircraft to replace them and an order for Douglas DC-9-50s was placed in November. On 9 December, an Il-18, registration YR-IMK, crashed into the Red Sea; there were fatalities. In January 1975, the government turned the order with Douglas down and moved to Boeing for the provision of new equipment. An agreement with the Soviets for the return of the Tu-154s was struck on 10 February; early in the year, the An-24s were traded back to the company that represented the Soviets as partial repayment for the loan taken to acquire the aft-engined Tu-154s. The Boeing order was finalised by March and consisted of Boeing 727-200s and Boeing 737-200s. There were plans to trade the first Boeing 707-320Cs in for the new aircraft as part of the deal with Boeing. Valued at million, the transaction was partly financed by the United Arab Emirates. In May, the order was homogenised to Boeing 737-200s with deliveries slated for April and May 1976. Arrangements were made to sell the four Comets both to raise money to finance the new aircraft and to have an all-Boeing fleet. A link between Cairo and Milan began in January 1976 and a new flight to Vienna started in April. Following allegations from the Egyptian parliament that airline officials had been bribed by Boeing to favour the 1975 order, the chairman Gamal Erfan resigned in February. On 22 April, a Boeing 737 flying from Cairo to Luxor was hijacked by Palestinians; an Egyptian commando team regained control of