Most of us living and working in western democracies cannot understand how the Egyptian authorities can keep a straight face after reading such a report and still claim that bad weather caused the accident.
Whatever El Batouti motives were , we will never know. What is sure though is that a non democratic totalitarian regime like Egypt will never accept a serious report blaming one of them. That's just not the way the Arab mind works. I should know for having lived and worked extensively there as a pilot. You never ever get the truth from them. Propaganda is the name of the game. Truth and the rule of law are non existent when it comes to government business.
I read a posting about Emirates some time back. While run by Westerners, the company is owned by Arabs. Can any of you tell me what would happen if an Emirates aircraft were to go down in the dramatic way of Egypt Air 990 or the mysterious way Flash 604 went down? Even after deep investigation, the owners of Emirates would deny the truth and not feel one bit bad about it. They would spread their propaganda and pretty soon passengers would go back to flying on their a/c the same way that passengers went back to flying on Egypt Air.
Finally, I must ask this question: Is it time for Westerners to stop flying Arabs or third world carriers?