wes_wall
22nd Feb 2002, 01:06
Soon to be released, and soon to spark another round of controversy.
EgyptAir crash "intentional". .Agence France-Presse. .21feb02
US federal investigators have concluded the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the US Atlantic coast was the result of intentional human action, sources close to the probe said.
A report compiled by the investigators states the Boeing 767 crashed 100 kilometres south of Nantucket Island "as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs," said the sources familiar with the document.
All 217 people aboard died.
The five presidential appointees who head the NTSB are reviewing the report, which will not become final until a majority of those members vote to accept it.
Their votes are due next week.
At the time of the crash, the Cairo-bound plane was controlled by co-pilot Gamil El-Batouty, who according to on-board recording devices, uttered something resembling a prayer before sending the airliner toward the ocean.
That has led to speculations that Batouty could have been on a suicide mission and intentionally crashed the plane.
EgyptAir officials have vehemently rejected the allegations, saying Batouty was a well-balanced family man and an experienced pilot who could not have committed suicide.
But the sources said the investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had found no evidence of a mechanical failure of the aircraft "that would have caused or contributed to" a dive at the speed of sound that preceded the jet's disintegration and crash.
According to the sources, the investigators argue in the report that Batouty was the only person in the cockpit when the Boeing went into a dive at about 1.50am (1750 AEDT) on October 31, 1999.
They argue that only Batouty could have pushed the aircraft into the dive and cut both engines back to their idle settings.
His voice, as captured on the cockpit voice recorder, expressed no surprise or symptoms of stress at the start of the dive or during the half minute of recording that followed it, the investigators found.
When the captain returned to the cockpit shortly after the beginning of the dive and asked what was happening, Batouty replied in Arabic: "I rely on God," a phrase he repeated before and after that more than a dozen times, the sources said.
The investigators noted that within seconds, the plane's two elevators, which normally move in unison to control its up-and-down motion, moved in opposite directions.
The elevator on the captain's side moved up, as it would to pull the airplane out of the dive. The elevator on the right, or Batouty's side, moved down.
The investigators cite this elevator "split" as evidence that the pilots were fighting for control of the airplane, the sources said.
They said that no mechanical failure could explain the behaviour of the elevators during and after the split.
After the cockpit and flight data recorders stopped at about 1.50am radar data showed the Boeing 767 climbing back up to 25,000 feet (7,500 metres), then breaking up.
Throughout the incident, the captain's actions "were consistent with an attempt to recover" from the dive, the investigators said in their report, while "the relief first officer's were not," according to the sources.
EgyptAir crash "intentional". .Agence France-Presse. .21feb02
US federal investigators have concluded the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the US Atlantic coast was the result of intentional human action, sources close to the probe said.
A report compiled by the investigators states the Boeing 767 crashed 100 kilometres south of Nantucket Island "as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs," said the sources familiar with the document.
All 217 people aboard died.
The five presidential appointees who head the NTSB are reviewing the report, which will not become final until a majority of those members vote to accept it.
Their votes are due next week.
At the time of the crash, the Cairo-bound plane was controlled by co-pilot Gamil El-Batouty, who according to on-board recording devices, uttered something resembling a prayer before sending the airliner toward the ocean.
That has led to speculations that Batouty could have been on a suicide mission and intentionally crashed the plane.
EgyptAir officials have vehemently rejected the allegations, saying Batouty was a well-balanced family man and an experienced pilot who could not have committed suicide.
But the sources said the investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had found no evidence of a mechanical failure of the aircraft "that would have caused or contributed to" a dive at the speed of sound that preceded the jet's disintegration and crash.
According to the sources, the investigators argue in the report that Batouty was the only person in the cockpit when the Boeing went into a dive at about 1.50am (1750 AEDT) on October 31, 1999.
They argue that only Batouty could have pushed the aircraft into the dive and cut both engines back to their idle settings.
His voice, as captured on the cockpit voice recorder, expressed no surprise or symptoms of stress at the start of the dive or during the half minute of recording that followed it, the investigators found.
When the captain returned to the cockpit shortly after the beginning of the dive and asked what was happening, Batouty replied in Arabic: "I rely on God," a phrase he repeated before and after that more than a dozen times, the sources said.
The investigators noted that within seconds, the plane's two elevators, which normally move in unison to control its up-and-down motion, moved in opposite directions.
The elevator on the captain's side moved up, as it would to pull the airplane out of the dive. The elevator on the right, or Batouty's side, moved down.
The investigators cite this elevator "split" as evidence that the pilots were fighting for control of the airplane, the sources said.
They said that no mechanical failure could explain the behaviour of the elevators during and after the split.
After the cockpit and flight data recorders stopped at about 1.50am radar data showed the Boeing 767 climbing back up to 25,000 feet (7,500 metres), then breaking up.
Throughout the incident, the captain's actions "were consistent with an attempt to recover" from the dive, the investigators said in their report, while "the relief first officer's were not," according to the sources.