EGYPTAIR FLIGHT 990

WASHINGTON (AP) - January 21, 2000 - National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall said Friday that additional studies must be completed before his agency can determine the cause of the EgyptAir 990 crash, and he disputed an Associated Press report that investigators are increasingly convinced the jet was crashed deliberately.

Three government officials close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said examinations of the jet's remains have revealed no signs of a mechanical failure that would have caused the plane to crash, AP reported Thursday.

``No hypothesis for the cause of this accident has been accepted,'' Hall said Friday in a statement. ``There is much that still needs to be done before a determination of cause can be reached.'' The AP story did not report that any hypothesis had been officially adopted by the safety agency.

One official told AP that the Boeing 767 showed no signs of mechanical problems and that ``it was doing what it was supposed to,'' before the crash. Asked about Hall's statement, the official said Friday night that he stood by his original account.

Two other officials said the working theory remains the plane was sent into a dive shortly after takeoff from New York's Kennedy Airport. Attempts to contact those two officials Friday night for comment on Hall's statement were not successful.

Hall said the NTSB and the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority had agreed this week to continue studying the accident, including the voice and data recorders. The investigators will be examining the plane's elevator system, hydraulic components and engine pylons, he said. They also plan to conduct flight simulations at Boeing facilities in Seattle.

``No decision has been reached at this point as to whether further wreckage recovery will ultimately be necessary,'' Hall said. ``Both agencies agree that additional work needs to be accomplished before a final decision can be made.''

About 70 percent of the plane's wreckage was recovered from the ocean floor, following the jet's plunge off the Massachusetts island of Nantucket on Oct. 31. The jet crashed 40 minutes into its 11-hour flight, killing all 217 aboard.

AP-NY-01-21-00 2211EST

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EgyptAir Tape Shows No Jet Problems

By DEB RIECHMANN

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (Dec. 10, 99) - Extensive review of cockpit conversations on EgyptAir Flight 990 has found no evidence an explosion or mechanical problem caused the plane to crash into the ocean, federal aviation investigators say.

''No sounds have been detected that would be consistent'' with such an explanation, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman James Hall said Friday.

Investigators still are pursuing the cause of the crash, including a theory that for unknown reasons, a relief co-pilot, Gameel El-Batouty, sent the Boeing 767 into the steep dive that carried all 217 aboard to their deaths in the Atlantic Ocean off Massachusetts on Oct. 31. The Egyptian public has reacted angrily to this speculation.

Hall said a substantial portion of the work on the 31 1/2-minute recording has been completed and working transcripts have been developed in both Arabic and English. Further refinements are possible.

He said the NTSB had no immediate plans to disclose the recorded conversations. ''I do not believe this transcript can be characterized or further described without adding to the speculation or misleading the public about the contents of the recording,'' he said.

He said routine air traffic control communications are heard throughout the tape, but that ''at no time did a member of the flight crew use radio communications to advise air traffic control of either an emergency or a mechanical failure or concern.''

Hall and FBI Director Louis Freeh on Monday plan to travel to Quonset Point, R.I., to visit a ship contracted to recover wreckage and human remains from the crash site. The ship was expected to leave Quonset Point this week, but was delayed by bad weather.

Last month, it appeared the NTSB was ready to turn the case over to the FBI to handle as a criminal investigation. After the Egyptian government objected, the NTSB continued to lead the probe.

Jim Davis, FBI spokesman in Washington, told The Associated Press that, at this point, it does not matter whether the FBI or the NTSB heads the investigation.

''We are still getting the job done,'' Davis said. ''There is no rush for us to take over this investigation. We want to be very cautious and deliberate.''

U.S. officials this week said the cockpit voice tape did not contain the sounds of multiple people in the cockpit as the plane began its fatal plunge into the ocean.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were parts of the tape where it is unclear who is speaking - an Egyptian translator said he thought the speaker might be a second person in the cockpit, but a U.S. translator disagreed.

The official said there is nothing else that would steer American investigators away from their theory that a lone person in the cockpit turned off the autopilot, pointed the plane's nose toward the water and then turned off the engines.

A source close to the investigation told the AP that Egyptian officials agree with the Americans about the words on the recording ''but not with their meaning'' or interpretation.

He said the U.S. investigation was in a holding pattern because officials want to see what, if any, clues can be retrieved from wreckage on the ocean floor. Investigators are looking for any evidence of explosives or possible mechanical failure that may not have been obvious from the voice and flight data recorders, he said. The recovery operation is expected to last two to three more weeks, he said.

Hall also said investigators, who have synchronized the cockpit voice recorder with data from the flight recorder, completed initial work this week on a flight simulator at the Boeing plant near Seattle. The simulator allowed them to re-enact the flight, although they were not able to experience the acceleration forces against their bodies.

Preliminary information from the flight data recorder indicates the plane's autopilot was switched off and the plane was put into a dive so steep and fast that passengers would briefly have felt weightless.

Additionally, the recorder showed both engines were shut off before the aircraft climbed briefly out of its dive and then turned and dropped into the ocean.

AP-NY-12-10-99 1754EST

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'ERROR' In EgyptAir Cockpit Translation, Say Feds!!

Incredibly... a mainstream media article in which a smidgen or two of truth can be glimpsed through the cracks.

Remember what momma used to say: "if you tell too many lies you just end up getting caught in them."

Speaking of which--WHERE ARE THE 217 BODIES????

NewsHawk® Inc.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

US Concedes 'Error' In EgyptAir Pilot Translation!

By Tim Dobbyn

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991120/ts/crash_egyptair_156.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some of the words originally attributed to a crewman of EgyptAir Flight 990, which bolstered a U.S. theory that the plane was deliberately crashed, were in fact never spoken, a government official said on Friday.

The embarrassing admission strengthens Egyptian opinion that U.S. media and officials are rushing to judgement on the cause of the crash and will further delay any decision to transfer leadership of the accident probe to the FBI as a criminal matter.

Closer review of the tape showed that the first sentence of a widely published quote from the cockpit voice recorder was in fact not uttered, the U.S. official said.

``I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands,'' was the incorrect translation from Arabic reported by Reuters and many other news organizations from sources.

But the official said there was only a reference to faith in God prior to the autopilot being disconnected and the plane beginning an unusually steep but controlled plunge toward the ocean.

The Boeing 767 aircraft crashed on Oct. 31 into the sea off Massachusetts less than an hour after taking off from New York for Cairo, killing all 217 people on board.

EgyptAir said Friday it had begun offering cash advances in cases of financial hardship to the families of those who died.

National Transportation Safety Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall on Friday said the accident might have been the result of a deliberate act but he scolded the media and government officials for fueling irresponsible speculation.

``Over the last few days we have seen a virtual cyclone of speculation about the course of this investigation,'' Hall told a news conference.

``We have not released specific information from the cockpit voice recorder,'' Hall said of the NTSB. ``I find it difficult to believe that responsible public servants would engage in this type of conduct.''

Hall, questioned by reporters, said he did not back away from safety board statements on the crash, including when he said Tuesday: ``We have so far found no sign of a mechanical or weather related event that could have caused this accident.''

The NTSB has said the engines were turned off during the dive. There are also indications on the flight data recorder that the captain and the co-pilot were in a contest over the controls, with the captain wanting to pull the nose up and the person in the co-pilot's seat commanding the nose to go down.

It was Hall who raised the possibility that EgyptAir 990 might have crashed due to a criminal act, when he told reporters Monday the safety board might yield leadership of the probe.

But it was not until the briefing Friday that Hall said he had met with FBI Director Louis Freeh ``to inform him this accident might be the result of a deliberate act.''

In the intervening days, news outlets, including Reuters, obtained information from sources about information on the cockpit voice recorder that officials said backed theories of a suicide plunge.

The U.S. official described the translation error as an ''innocent mistake'' but was unsure how it had happened. The official said it may have been the difference between an early interpretation of Arabic on the tape and a later listening.

U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, a Republican from Washington state, said he would switch to EgyptAir for a Nov. 30 flight from New York to Cairo for meetings with Egyptian officials as a protest at the ``premature and irresponsible speculation.''

``There are family members who are needlessly being anguished by these stories that are being splashed across newspaper headlines,'' said Metcalf, who sits on the House of Representatives Aviation Subcommittee and in whose district Boeing 777, 747, and 767 planes are built.

U.S. theories that the crash may have been deliberate have sparked anger in Egypt.

After a day of diplomatic meetings and phone calls Tuesday, Washington agreed with Cairo to delay letting the FBI control the probe until additional Egyptian experts examine the evidence.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

11.20.99

NTSB's Hall Re: 990 - Things Said So Far Were Lies!

On Friday, Nov.19, NTSB head honcho Jim Hall said publicly that everything that's been claimed thus far by government officials about what's been heard on Fl. 990's cockpit voice recorder--as reported in the mainstream press--has been "LIES"!

Eh? LIES?? Well, isn't THAT a shocker (NOT)!

And who's responsible for these "lies", we'd dearly like to know? Hall seems to be trying hard to make it look as though the media has been taking things out of context and misinterpreting information, but the funny thing is the press been relying solely on little snippets and hints which came right from the mouths of government hacks! So, it's these government mouthpieces who are spinning the tales.

THESE are the kind of tactics now used by the criminals who've assumed control of our government to such a great extent at this point.

They leak these little tidbits ("lies") here and there using lower-level government flunkies (we've totally LOST COUNT by now how MANY different scenarios the feds have tried to put over regarding Fl. 990), to see which lies have the best chance of staying afloat. Then, if some particular scenario seems to be holding, they'll dig in and stay with it.

So far, EVERYTHING they've said about Fl. 990 in nearly 3 weeks has been going over like a lead balloon.

Their approach could best be summed up as follows. Throw enough shit at the wall, and SOME of it has GOT to stick. Pee-YEW! What you end up with is a wall covered in crap and the WHOLE THING STINKS!!!

Exactly HOW STUPID do these criminally insane vermin think we are? How stupid do they think the Egyptians are?

ENOUGH! Somebody... change the channel... PLEASE!

And, by the way.... WHERE ARE THE BODIES!! Pieces, even? It's against the laws of physics for absolutely no bodies or parts of bodies to have floated to the surface by now. It's utterly ludicrous to suggest that just because the jet hit the water at supersonic speeds, every single body was pulverized into nothingness--an "explanation" which is apparently being surreptitiously propagated and encouraged... by SOME agency or other.

Something is definitely totally "wrong" with this aspect and it's not even being MENTIONED by the mainstream media.

3 Weeks and Counting re: Fl. 990--NO BODIES, NO ANSWERS!

Yes folks, it's 3 weeks and counting now regarding the Fl. 990 crash, and what do we have? NO BODIES, and NO ANSWERS! What else is there to say? How 'bout this.... We have NOTHING BUT LIES!!!

At this point, the craftiest, most surreptitious of the government's spin-meisters are busily at work carefully sowing the seeds of still another wild, wacked-out tale; a yet-deeper level of official, disinformative Nazi-style "Big Lie", which attempts to explain the torrent of hopelessly pathetic and obvious lies issued by the feds continually since the crash of Fl. 990 as a coverup implemented by feds to cover for the fact that Boeing's 767s suffer from a catastrophic design flaw, which could result in untold billions of dollars in ruinous lawsuits being directed against the vitally important giant American aircraft manufacturer and defense contractor.

For one thing, this new fable shows precisely how DESPERATE feds have become regarding the massive uproar the Fl. 990 crash has incurred worldwide; that feds are actually willing to take a full body HIT on running a full-on coverup on the air disaster; AND that they are willing to let Boeing get saddled with the worst, most negative global public image one could ever imagine. Tough luck, Boeing. Of course, this "rumor"-intelligence" fable will almost certainly never get to point where it gets mouthed publicly in unmistakable terms by any prominent government figure(head)s like Jim Hall or Klinton... because if it DOES, Boeing is likely to file the biggest lawsuit in the history of Western civilization. BUT, the tall tale WILL be allowed to simmer and bubble around the fringes of international political circles and "polite society" as long as possible, to further muddy the waters swirling around the causes of the Fl. 990 crash.

That the feds would be willing to cause such severe harm to Boeing and to even admit to running a coverup indeed shows to what incredible lengths these government factions are going to prevent the REAL TRUTH from ever seeing the light of full public disclosure.

The real truth is that covert, fascistic factions of the U.S. government--which for all practical purposes can most easily be described as "PRO-New World Order"--were directly responsible for causing Fl. 990 to crash. NewsHawk, as we've noted, does not have definitive information on WHY the jet was brought down.

This latest tall tale is a pretty serious effort, spooks. Except for one thing--it's complete hogwash of the most serious kind, and the Boeing 767 is one the finest commercial aircraft around.

Oh yeah... and by the way; WHERE ARE THE 217 BODIES?????

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12.1.99

Fl. 990 Update: Explosion Witnesses

A big monkey-wrench in the Fl. 990 crash cover-up works is the fact that there were WITNESSES to the explosion which brought down the jet.

The German citizen who was piloting his business jet nearby that night and witnessed almost the entire series of events involving Fl. 990 reportedly has steadfastly resisted intense pressure from U.S. government intelligence agents to change his story: that after seeing the jet dive to 17,000 feet level off, climb and dive again it was struck by a missile in the tail section.

The witness gave a statement to Reuters within several days of the crash, but Reuters was ordered by the U.S. government to shut the story down. He has recently made statements to the European press again, we've been told.

Additionally two individuals witnessed an airborne explosion along with some other rather unusual aerial phenomenon over the water to the south of the island of Nantucket shortly before 3 AM on October 31, which unsurprisingly have been totally ignored by the media that night. These two have likewise reportedly been visited by federal aviation and law enforcement/intelligence officials and strongly "urged" to hush up and go away. Such suggestions have reportedly not been strictly followed.

Further information on this can be found at Kent Steadman's CyberSpace ORBIT website --

The question now is: WHY isn't this being reported by the corporate press?

NewsHawk® Inc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday November 26

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991126/ts/crash_egyptair_171.html

EgyptAir Pilot Says Missile or Bomb Caused Crash

By Mahmoud Kassem

CAIRO (Reuters) - The chief pilot of EgyptAir believes a bomb or missile downed the national carrier's Flight 990 by blasting off the aircraft's tail.

Tarek Selim rejected theories that a suicidal pilot or mechanical glitch caused last month's crash off the U.S. East Coast.

``There are two possibilities that would cause the tail unit to split off. Either a bomb was attached to the tail or it was hit by a missile,'' Selim told the state-owned Al-Ahram English-language weekly before heading off to New York to join Egyptian crash experts.

The Boeing 767 plunged into the sea off Massachusetts on Oct. 31, killing all 217 people on board.

``I flew the Boeing 767, which is one of the best aircraft, for 12 years without any major problems,'' he said. ``Any problem, and I mean any problem, apart from an explosion, can be handled and the plane will remain under control.''

``In all circumstances, the pilot certainly will have plenty of time to talk, contact control points and act according to instructions,'' he said.

``In case of a serious emergency, all the pilot has to do is say 'Mayday' and the distress call will be heard by all airports ... but they did not have the chance to utter this word.''

Investigators have said Flight 990's right and left elevators, which make the plane ascend and descend, pointed in different directions during part of the plane's plunge.

An EgyptAir pilot said Monday that damage to the tail, possibly caused by an electronic malfunction, could have downed the plane.

A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesman in Washington said the board's position remained unchanged and that no mechanical or weather-related event could so far explain the crash.

Persistent Suicide Theories

Referring to media speculation that a co-pilot had deliberately set the airliner on a suicidal dive, Selim said: ''I believe the speculation fueled by leaks of information from the cockpit tape recorder are ridiculous.''

Egypt was angered by speculation based partly on words attributed to one of the pilots that suggested he had deliberately set the airliner on a suicidal dive.

The New York Times quoted one official Thursday as saying that a few minutes before the plane began its dive Gamal al-Batouti, one of the two relief pilots on board, ordered the co-pilot out of his seat by ``pulling rank'' on him.

It said investigators believed he was alone in the cockpit when the plane went into its dive.

``Nobody is coming up with hard evidence (to prove it was a suicide),'' Selim said. ``It doesn't make sense for someone to pick up bits and pieces and say that this is the story.''

Captain Murad Walid, head of the Egyptian Pilots' Federation, denounced the New York Times report which he said pointed the finger once again at a possible suicide bid by one of the pilots.

``The exchange of duties on the plane between co-pilots is normal and a natural thing which happens on all flights,'' he said.

``Nobody sticks to the working schedules ... . Taking turns to steer the plane happens according to the circumstances of every pilot.

``If Batouti wanted to commit suicide, he wouldn't have left the door of the cockpit open allowing the captain to get inside (the cockpit),'' Murad said.

``He could have locked it from inside and nobody would have opened it, but actually he left the door open.''

In Vienna, the independent Austrian Institute of Aerospace-medicine and Spacebiology said Thursday the crash might have been caused by a flight stabilizer breakdown.

``The abnormal dive of the Boeing 767 could be due to a so-called 'stabilizer run-away', it said in a statement.

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Friday November 26 3:44 AM ET

U.S. Mulls Safety Standards for Foreign Airlines

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department is writing safety guidelines that would increase scrutiny of U.S. airlines' ticket-sharing pacts with foreign carriers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The standards are being drafted amid concern over the safety of foreign airlines, including the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 which killed 217 people on Oct. 31, and the crash of Korean Air Flight 801 in Guam, which killed 228 people in 1997.

Though a final decision has not been made on the exact form of the standards, they are expected to be based on voluntary practices already accepted by six major airlines and the Defense Department in an agreement in August, the Journal said.

The guidelines could include examinations of training, maintenance and other practices, the report said. The U.S. airlines' assessment programs would need to meet the standards in order for code-sharing pacts to get Transportation Department approval.

Such code-sharing agreements have proliferated as airlines have sought to increase their international reach without investing in new planes. In September, a Transportation Department report called for higher scrutiny of foreign carriers in such pacts with U.S. airlines.

Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration has had some limited oversight of foreign carrier operations.

The new standards are expected to be announced in early December, the report said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No Letup For FBI In Probe Of Crash

Bureau Focusing On People Linked To Flight 990

By David A. Vise and Don Phillips

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, November 26, 1999; Page A01

The FBI is vigorously investigating the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 even though the National Transportation Safety Board continues to have the lead role in the probe, according to federal law enforcement officials.

Hundreds of federal agents and other experts in Washington, Cairo and elsewhere are working closely with the safety board and Egyptian officials to understand more about the airplane, the crew, the passengers and those who came into contact with the aircraft as it made its journey from Los Angeles to New York.

The other side of the investigation--whether some so-far hidden mechanical failure brought down the Boeing 767--is necessarily in a go-slow mode for now. Safety board investigators can pore over maintenance records and further refine data from on-board recorders, but almost all the physical evidence is buried under 250 feet of water and silt at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the plane made its deadly plunge about 60 miles off the coast of Massachusetts.

Months and millions of dollars probably will be required to bring up enough wreckage to confirm or overturn strong preliminary evidence from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder that indicates nothing mechanically wrong with the plane. Although they will look, investigators privately doubt they will find what they sometimes call the "eureka piece" that would turn the investigation around.

Meanwhile, the logical course for the probe is to look into the backgrounds, records and activities of the humans involved with the plane--something the FBI is well-trained to do.

Given the strong Egyptian government objections that were lodged when the NTSB prepared to transfer jurisdiction for the Oct. 31 crash to the FBI, it actually benefits the bureau to have the NTSB remain in the lead role, at least for now, officials said. The reason: Egyptian protestations over the bureau's turning the probe into a criminal investigation could have blocked the detail-oriented background work that needs to be done in Egypt, U.S. law enforcement officials said.

"Typically the bureau wants to elbow their way into the lead position, but they are being real sensible," one U.S. official said of the FBI. "It is an institutionally mature reaction to not technically have the lead in order that they might be better able to do their work."

In Egypt, investigations into the backgrounds of all of the pilots and crew are being undertaken by Egyptian authorities at the FBI's request, officials said. In Washington, officials from the NTSB, the FBI and Egypt are working on completing an agreed-upon transcript of the flight's voice recorder.

"People need to understand this is not at a standstill. We are doing everything that we need to do in this case," said FBI spokesman Jim Davis. "The titular head of this investigation . . . really has no impact at all on the work that agents are doing in the field. The interviews are being conducted, the evidence is being reviewed and we have got agents working with the Egyptian authorities."

Having the safety board remain in charge has another benefit: a worldwide reputation for technical competence and honesty. And with certain glaring exceptions--including a bitter dispute with the French government over what brought down a French-built airliner in Indiana in 1994--the safety board is also viewed as fair.

Law enforcement officials said their focus remains on co-pilot Gameel Batouti, who they believe entered the cockpit sometime after takeoff and intentionally pushed the plane into a dive while the captain was absent.

That judgment is based heavily on a series of suspicious actions by Batouti, officials said, including switching off the plane's autopilot after apparently saying a prayer repeatedly.

While his prayer in Arabic--"I have put my faith in God's hands"--has played a role in the probe, it is less significant, officials said, than the actions he took in the cockpit. What remains under intense review, law enforcement officials said, is why Batouti, the father of five and a longtime pilot, might have deliberately taken the actions that led to his death and those of 216 others on board the flight.

So far, the case against him is strong but circumstantial. While public attention has been focused on the prayer, investigators point out that it is important to note what he didn't say. There was no shocked expletive or puzzled comment, as pilots typically make in an emergency or when highly computerized aircraft suddenly take action without pilot input.

U.S. investigators said they were told that Batouti was not scheduled to be in the cockpit until later in the flight, another in the series of factors that has led to a focus on his actions.

Batouti was alone in the cockpit when the autopilot disconnected, an action that will trigger an alarm unless a pilot clicks twice on the shutoff button. There was no alarm.

Eight seconds later, engine power was cut back, and devices on the plane's tail that regulate altitude--elevators--pushed the plane into a precipitous dive. Unfortunately for investigators, the flight data recorder does not record whether elevator controls in the cockpit were moved deliberately. But neither the voice recorder nor data recorder contains anything indicating a malfunction that could cause a rapid elevator deflection.

With the plane at zero gravity, the captain clawed his way back into the cockpit. His comments are inconclusive as to whether he thought something mechanical was happening or suspected his experienced co-pilot of deliberately downing the plane.

Deep into the dive, the elevators split, something that normally happens only when one set of controls is jammed and the other pilot jerks his controls free with at least 50 pounds of pressure. The same thing would happen, however, if the pilots were pulling and pushing in opposite directions.

A few seconds later, someone cut the engines off, an action that requires two deliberate steps and can't happen accidentally. There is no logical reason to cut off the engine on an aircraft that someone still wants to fly.

Sources say that at about the same time the engines shut down, the engine throttles were pushed forward as if someone were trying to increase engine power. It is possible someone or something fell into the throttles, but it is also possible an effort to power up the engines was thwarted by someone shutting down the engines.

None of this is conclusive proof that Batouti downed the plane. And even if he did, it says nothing about a possible motive that could range from the onset of a seizure to suicide to some sort of panic reaction to a real or perceived problem. But it does lead investigators to conclude that he and his life should be closely reviewed as part of the probe.

Davis emphasized that the FBI is looking at a broad variety of possible explanations for the crash and is not focusing on any single individual or action or group. The passengers included dozens of Egyptian military officials. There has been speculation, thus far unfounded, that they could have been a target.

"We are in no rush to make any judgments or come to any conclusions. We very honestly are not putting all our eggs in any single basket," Davis said. "We still continue to look at other possible explanations."

Davis also said the cooperation of Egyptian officials is crucial since the FBI must rely upon Egyptian authorities to obtain records and question people on Egyptian soil about the crew and the passengers.

"We are not allowed to conduct investigations overseas," Davis said. "When you talk about looking into the background of the pilots and crew members and the passengers, any of that work that has to be done in Egypt is conducted by the local authorities. That is their investigation. We can only request that they conduct the investigation."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

11-26-99 -

Amr Moussa was speaking after a US newspaper suggested co-pilot Jamil Batouti had acted suspiciously moments before the plane plunged into the Atlantic killing all 217 people on board.

The report quoted one investigation official saying Mr Batouti abruptly took over the controls after ordered the co-pilot out of his seat by "pulling rank" on him.

There was nothing as intentional as suicide

US reports have focused on the fact Mr Batouti can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder repeating the words "I put my trust in God" in the final moments of the flight.

But Mr Moussa told the BBC on Friday that media reports had failed to understand basic facts about the Muslim faith.

''Many of us, when embarking on doing something, say a few words invoking the help of God.

''But in a case of suicide you should ask for forgiveness and those were not the words uttered, which means there was nothing as intentional as suicide on the part of the co-pilot.''

However, the New York Times said investigators were suspicious about why Mr Batouti had suddenly taken over the controls when he was not scheduled to fly the plane until later in the trip.

Egyptian and US experts are analysing the cockpit recorder. The newspaper, quoting three unamed officials, said the investigators' interest in Mr Batouti was aroused both by his reference to God and by "the abrupt way he took the co-pilot's seat".

"While investigators have characterised Mr Batouti's action in pushing his way into the co-pilot's seat as suspicious, safety officials said they still did not have a complete picture of what happened or why," it added.

Nonsense theory

American and Egyptian experts are still struggling to decipher the cockpit recorder.
Investigators say they have found no evidence of any mechanical or weather conditions that could have caused the disaster.

But EgyptAir's chief pilot dismissed the suicide theories as ''nonsense''.

In an interview with the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, Tarek Seli said he believed the crash was caused by a missile or bomb hitting the plane's tail.

And he speculated that the jet was lying intact on the seabed, minus the tail, with the bodies of the passengers and crew inside, which is why no bodies had been found.

'Appalling' speculation

An international airline pilots' group also stepped into the fray on Friday to denounce the media frenzy about the suicide theory.

Captain Ted Murphy, president of the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations, which represents 100,000 commercial pilots, was scathing over how quickly it had gained credibility.

"It just appals me that we had all this personal information about the co-pilot," he added.

Mr Murphy said this, combined with incorrect interpretations of the cockpit recorder, "have been deeply hurtful to the families of the crew...to EgyptAir and to all professional flight crew."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday November 26 5:09 PM ET

U.S. Crash Investigators Leave Egypt

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - American investigators were headed home on Friday after a weeklong visit to Egypt as part of a probe into last month's crash of EgyptAir's Flight 990, airport officials said.

The Americans met with aviation officials and reviewed files concerning the crew of the jetliner. U.S. investigators believe co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty may have intentionally caused the crash.

They were apparently looking into the backgrounds of passengers, crew members and others who had access to Flight 990 before it crashed on Oct. 31 shortly after takeoff from New York, killing all 217 people aboard.

Other details of the Americans' work in Egypt were not known. U.S. Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

Western diplomats have said the Americans are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Transportation and Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday November 26 7:13 PM ET

EgyptAir Probe Seen Slowed by Political Concerns

By Tim Dobbyn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Egyptian theories that a bomb or missile may have brought down EgyptAir Flight 990 are sharply at odds with U.S. analysis of the evidence and underscore how the probe seems destined to become bogged down in cultural and political sensitivities.

Scenarios involving explosions have been advanced by local news media and some Egyptian officials as the reason the Cairo-bound plane plunged to the ocean on Oct. 31, killing all 217 people on board shortly after taking off from New York.

``Either a bomb was attached to the tail or it was hit by a missile,'' EgyptAir chief pilot Tarek Selim told the state-owned Al-Ahram English-language weekly before heading off to the United States to join other Egyptian crash experts.

U.S. officials repeated on Friday that they have so far found no indication of mechanical failure or a bomb, leaving open the question of whether the plunge was deliberate.

But the thought of a suicidal or murderous act by a crewmember is something most Egyptians cannot contemplate and U.S. plans to transfer leadership of the probe to the FBI as a criminal matter were scuttled under diplomatic pressure.

``This investigation is going to degenerate into a diplomatic encounter,'' said former National Transportation Safety Board member Vernon Grose.

``We're in an odd place apparently, because in the Middle East we want Egypt to be our friend so we can't be objective,'' said Grose, chairman of risk consultancy, Omega Systems Group.

Cultural Concerns

Aviation expert John Nance said he understood that suicide was outside Egyptian cultural norms. ``I feel for them, but there is no evidence of anything that would substantiate a mechanical or an explosive cause,'' the pilot and author said.

Bomb or missile damage to the tail would have produced a far more erratic descent, the experts said.

An NTSB time-line of the EgyptAir crash taken from the flight data recorder starts with the autopilot being disconnected, followed eight seconds later with throttles being retarded and the nose dropping into a steep but controlled plunge that exceeded the Boeing Co. 767's design speed.

Thirty-five seconds into the event the elevators in the tail show a split mode, with the captain's side commanding the nose up and the co-pilot's pointing the nose down.

Immediately after that the engine start lever moves from ''run'' to ``cutoff.''

The dive continues and someone tries to activate the speed brakes. The elevator split lessens but the recorder quits with the nose still pointed 10 degrees down, 51 seconds after the autopilot was disconnected.

Although controversy has raged over leaks of what may have been said on the cockpit voice recorder, many experts find the flight data disturbing enough, particularly the decision to stop the engines.

Engine Cutoff Disturbing

``The switches must be pulled up and over a safety gate,'' said one 767 pilot with a major U.S. airline. ``You just don't knock them into the off position.''

Nance said the cutoff might make sense if restarting the engines after leveling out and finding a flameout had occurred. ''This was mid dive,'' he noted. ``No sane pilot would do that if he had any interest in recovering his aircraft.''

But the probe remains under the leadership of the NTSB where work with Egyptian experts on producing a voice recorder transcript has temporarily stopped to allow investigators a break. The group will resume work on Monday, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said.

The board's position remains that no mechanical or weather-related event can so far explain the crash. ``We have not changed that,'' Holloway said.

FBI spokesman Jim Davis declined to comment on a New York Times report on Thursday that suspicion about relief pilot Gamil al-Batouti was partly prompted by the abrupt way he took the co-pilot's seat just a few minutes before the plane's dive.

Davis said there had been no determination of a criminal act but all possible causes were being explored. ``We are being very sincere about this. We are not closing off any areas of investigation.''

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Egyptian Expert Offers Blast Theory

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -(November 24, 1999) A senior transportation ministry official said today an explosion caused EgyptAir Flight 990 to crash last month. He urged Egyptian investigators not to let their U.S. counterparts impose a scenario that a suicidal co-pilot brought down the plane.

Early on in the probe, U.S. investigators discounted the theory of an explosion or mechanical difficulties, but the explosion scenario has been the subject of wide speculation here in Egypt.

The comments by Gen. Issam Ahmed, who heads the government's flight training program at the ministry, were the first time any senior Egyptian official publicly said an explosion was the cause.

The Oct. 31 crash killed all 217 people on board the Boeing 767. It plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the eastern coast of the United States.

Egyptians have raised an outcry over a scenario that has been put forward by sources in the U.S. investigation suggesting that Gameel El-Batouty, a co-pilot, may have put the plane into a dive when he was alone at the controls.

Ahmed, who previously headed the transportation ministry's plane accidents committee, said the Egyptian experts in the United States should concentrate on investigating the tail, which ``carries the mystery of the accident.''

He said the cases carrying the flight data and voice recorders, the so-called ``black boxes'' in the plane's tail, were severely damaged.

``This confirms that the tail of the plane, where the two boxes are located, was subjected to an explosion at the height of 33,000 feet. It was either an internal or external explosion,'' Ahmed said in an interview.

Ahmed is not involved in investigating the Flight 990 crash.

The ministry official also said the Egyptian experts should ``be on the alert'' about reports detailing the suicide theory. ``Methods aimed at condemning EgyptAir and its pilots have been taken by preparing public opinion to accept what they (Americans) want to impose, which is the suicide theory,'' he said.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has said that data from the black boxes shows that the autopilot was disengaged at an altitude of 33,000 feet and the plane went into a steep dive with engines at full power. The engines were turned off at 21,000 feet. The black boxes stopped recording at 16,400 feet.

Ahmed dismissed the U.S. sources' contention that el-Batouty put the plane into a dive and the pilot rushed into the cockpit and tried to regain control, as was indicated by his pleas taped on the cockpit voice recorder.

Ahmed said the pilots' words and actions instead indicated their confusion because something had ``happened in the tail, and far away from the cockpit.''

The two pilots took the right steps, he said, including turning off the autopilot and the engines in an attempt to control the plane.

On Monday, Egypt's Transportation Minister Ibrahim el-Dumeiri rejected suggestions that human mistakes led to the crash.

AP-NY-11-24-99 1139EST

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Egyptian Experts Join Crash Probe

By FAIZA SALEH AMBAH

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - (November 23, 1999) A team of Egyptian air safety, maintenance and voice analysis experts headed for the United States today to join the investigation into the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990.

Meanwhile, the FBI has sent agents to Cairo to pursue the probe from that end, a U.S. diplomat said - the first acknowledgment that the bureau was following up investigations in Egypt.

The Egyptian government has opposed handing over the probe to the FBI for a criminal inquiry - but the diplomat, speaking on condition on anonymity, said Egyptian officials had consented to sending agents here to assist the probe.

A Egyptian civil aviation official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the expert team sent to the United States ``will join the committees formed to discover the mystery behind the crash.''

Egypt's transport minister told Parliament on Monday that the Egyptian head of the investigation in the United States had requested a psychologist and voice specialist be flown to the United States to help.

The civil aviation official could not confirm if a psychologist was on the flight that left today. The team included voice recognition experts, two maintenance experts as well as members of Egypt's air safety board, the official said.

The U.S.-led investigation has sparked an outcry here in Egypt after contentions arose that a suicidal co-pilot may have brought the Boeing 767 down into the Atlantic on Oct. 31, killing all 217 people aboard.

Reports on the suicide scenario focused on cockpit recordings said to include the voice of the co-pilot.

In his first official report to Parliament on the probe, Transport Minister Ibrahim el-Dumeiri criticized the speculation around the co-pilot. However, he did not say what Egyptian authorities thought sent.

The transport minister said it may take a year or more to ``get to the complete truth'' about why Flight 990 crashed. While he said Egypt was not discounting any theories, he sought to distance Egyptian crew and maintenance workers from blame.

In Parliament, lawmakers echoed popular conspiracy theories circulating among Cairo residents and Egyptian media, some of which suggest that U.S. authorities are blaming the crew to cover up sabotage, mechanical troubles or Israeli involvement in some sort of plot against Egypt.

One legislator claimed 33 Egyptian military officers aboard Flight 990 were the target of unspecified assailants.

``This accident was deliberate, and the target was the large number of military onboard the plane,'' Mohammed Marzouq said.

The American diplomat stressed Monday that despite the FBI agents' activities in Egypt, the investigation was not a criminal probe.

If the FBI took over the lead role in the investigation, it would mean a criminal act was thought to have downed the flight. At Egypt's request, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has delayed handing the case over to the bureau.

AP-NY-11-23-99 1034EST

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Egypt Pilots Hail Speculation Rebuff

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (Nov. 20, 99) - Egyptian airline pilots Saturday welcomed a statement by U.S. investigators that cast doubt on speculative reports that the co-pilot of EgyptAir Flight 990 downed the plane deliberately.

In a statement, the Egyptian Airline Pilots' Association urged the media to be restrained in reporting the ongoing investigation into the Oct. 31 crash that killed all 217 people on board the Boeing 767 jet.

''All Egyptian pilots are happy with the announcement by American officials that these reports, which leaked from the (investigative) committee were false,'' Walid Murad, the head of the pilots' association, said in the statement.

On Friday, Jim Hall, the head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, denounced speculative media reports about conversations taped by the cockpit's voice recorder, saying some were ''flat wrong.''

Speculation about the cause of the crash heightened Wednesday when several news organizations quoted anonymous officials as saying the man in the co-pilot's seat, said to be Gameel El-Batouty, was heard saying on the cockpit recorder: ''I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands.''

But on Friday, a government official said the first sentence about the ''decision'' had not been heard on the tape after all and was apparently the result of confusion among investigators.

The allegations caused El-Batouty's family tremendous anguish, and made them the focus of unwanted attention, Walid El-Batouty, the co-pilot's nephew, told reporters on Friday.

Hall said speculation about words captured on the cockpit voice recorder had caused unnecessary pain and ''done a disservice to the long-standing friendship between the people of the United States of America and Egypt.''

Still, investigators aren't excluding the possibility that the plane was crashed intentionally. As they looked at wreckage and other evidence from the crash, ''our investigators began to feel that the crash might - and I emphasize might - be the result of a deliberate act,'' Hall said Friday.

Murad, head of the Egyptian pilots' association, urged the American media to be ''patient and not precede matters and to give the investigators a chance to concentrate on their work.''

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali said relatives of the crash victims would receive compensation after submitting death certificates and proof of relation, Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported. The amount has not been disclosed.

Following a meeting with EgyptAir chairman Mohammed Fahim Rayan and officials from the Misr Insurance Company, Boutros-Ghali said all claims would be settled as soon as possible and that compensation will be paid according to an agreement between EgyptAir and Misr Insurance.

The insurance company has already compensated EgyptAir for the cost of the airplane, MENA said without disclosing the figure.

AP-NY-11-20-99 1428EST

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

11.20.99

NTSB's Hall Re: 990--Things Said So Far Were Lies!!

Eh? LIES?? Well, isn't THAT a shocker (NOT)!

THESE are the kind of tactics now used by the criminals who've assumed control of our government to such a great extent at this point.

So far, EVERYTHING they've said about Fl. 990 in nearly 3 weeks has been going over like a lead balloon.

Exactly HOW STUPID do these criminally insane vermin think we are? How stupid do they think the Egyptians are?

ENOUGH! Somebody... change the channel... PLEASE!

Something is definitely totally "wrong" with this aspect and it's not even being MENTIONED by the mainstream media.

****************

EgyptAir Suspicious Words Denied

By ANNE GEARAN

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (Nov. 20, 99) - The suspicious words ''I made my decision now'' are not on the cockpit voice recorder of EgyptAir Flight 990 after all, a government official says.

On Wednesday, a federal law enforcement official said that just before the autopilot was turned off and the fatal dive began, the crew member in the co-pilot's seat was recorded as saying: ''I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands.''

But on Friday, a government official said the first of those sentences - the one about making a decision - is not on the tape. It apparently arose from confusion among investigators, the official said.

This official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, could not say whether there was some other prefatory sentence or differing translation. Experts went over the tape this week and electronically enhanced it to prepare an exact transcript.

Despite this, the head of the team investigating the Oct. 31 crash, said Friday that officials believe the crash may have been deliberate.

As they looked at wreckage and other evidence from the crash, ''our investigators began to feel that the crash might - and I emphasize might - be the result of a deliberate act,'' James Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters.

The New York-to-Cairo jetliner crashed off Massachusetts' Nantucket Island, killing all 217 people aboard, including two pilots and two relief pilots.

Hall said speculation about words captured on the cockpit voice recorder had caused unnecessary pain and ''done a disservice to the longstanding friendship between the people of the United States of America and Egypt.''

He decried ''second-, third- and fourth-hand'' speculation that is some instances has produced ''headlines with information that is just flat wrong.''

U.S. investigators apparently found the cockpit conversation suspicious enough that they considered turning over the inquiry to the FBI as a criminal matter. Hall said that decision has been postponed.

Many Egyptians, who pepper everyday conversation with religious expressions, were not convinced that the cockpit recording pointed to suicide.

Since Hall himself previously discounted mechanical failure or weather-related factors as causes of the crash, attention had turned to cockpit actions and the words of the crew, especially relief co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty.

After finding the flight data recorder, searchers recovered the cockpit voice recorder last weekend.

The flight data recorder showed an unusual sequence of events, including that the plane's autopilot was disconnected at 33,000 feet. El-Batouty was apparently alone in the cockpit.

Eight seconds later, the tail flaps, or elevators, were moved to push the plane's nose down. The aircraft began a steep descent.

Next, the recorder revealed the cockpit doors opened. Investigators believe the pilot, Capt. Ahmed Mahmoud el-Habashy, returned to the cockpit. Investigators believe he tried to regain control of the aircraft because he is heard to say, ''Pull with me. Help me, pull with me.''

Thirty-five seconds later, the elevators were moved to opposite directions. One pilot may have been trying to right the plane while another pilot's controls were pitching the plane toward the water.

Only small bits of the plane have been recovered, and the recovery process has been slowed by bad weather. Hall said another Navy vessel will travel from Portugal to assist in bringing up more plane wreckage and human remains. The ship should arrive around Dec. 1, and the recovery could go on for weeks after that, he said.

AP-NY-11-20-99 0206EST

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Words Open to Interpretation

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (Nov. 18, 99) - Words thought to have been uttered by a co-pilot just before EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean apparently sounded suspicious enough to U.S. investigators that they were set to turn the case over to the FBI.

Egyptians, who pepper ordinary conversation with religious phrases and brief testimonials of faith, aren't so sure.

Officials close to the investigation in the United States told The Associated Press that the co-pilot said in Arabic: ''I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands.''

Earlier, The New York Times reported a slightly different translation: ''I entrust my faith to God.''

An Arabic phrase about putting one's faith in God's hands is commonly invoked before leaving the house each day or embarking on a new task, such as starting a car or even uncapping an ink pen.

Such a phrase also is used when a snap decision must be made - as an acknowledgment that human beings are imperfect and the final outcome must be left to God.

EgyptAir also has noted that religious words would be only natural in an emergency situation.

There is another invocation, the shahada, that Muslims must recite if they are certain they are moments away from death.

''A Muslim should say 'there is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet' when anticipating death,'' Souad Ibrahim Saleh, a Cairo cleric told The Associated Press. ''That is better than somebody else saying it for him or her later.''

AP-NY-11-18-99 1140EST

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Co-Pilot's Family Wants Privacy

By EARLEEN FISHER

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (Nov. 20, 99) - The family of co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty, steadfast in their belief that he was not responsible for the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, are pleading for an end to speculation and news leaks.

But Walid El-Batouty, the co-pilot's nephew, said: ''We'd like to hear some leak saying 'No, he is not the one' '' who caused the Oct. 31 crash that killed all 217 persons aboard the Boeing 767 jetliner.

El-Batouty said the family was heartened when the head of the investigating board in Washington denounced speculative reports about the conversations captured on the cockpit's voice recorder, saying some were ''flat wrong.''

On Friday, an official in Washington said the purported sentence that had focused so much attention on relief co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty has not been heard on the tape after all.

The reports of its existence were wrong, apparently caused by confusion among investigators, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Speculation about the cause of the crash had heightened Wednesday when several news organizations quoted anonymous officials as saying the man in the co-pilot's seat was heard saying on the tape: ''I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands.''

That first sentence - now disavowed - about making a ''decision'' had spurred theories of a suicidal person at the airplane's controls.

Egyptian airline officials tentatively identified the co-pilot at the time of the crash as El-Batouty, 59, who was scheduled to take over much later in the flight, according to sources in the United States close to the investigation.

''They say a person is innocent until proven guilty - and we were taken into live 'court,' Walid El-Batouty. ''Criminals are innocent until proven guilty ... We've already been accused, we've been judged, and we were just waiting for the punishment.''

But he said no one in the family or among their friends or even strangers they encountered believed that Gameel El-Batouty, a financially well-off father of five, would have tried to kill himself or an entire planeload of people.

Now, he said, the family just wants to retreat into privacy and await the outcome of the investigation.

''We wish and we pray that no more leaks come,'' he said. ''Nobody on Earth would like to be in our position.'' The hurt, he said, was ''something beyond imagination.''

Walid repeated what family members have said in the past few days, that there was no reason for El-Batouty to end his life: he was financially secure, he was looking forward to retirement from EgyptAir in March and devoting more time to his plant nursery, spending more time with his youngest child, 10-year-old Aya, and an engagement party in two months' time for his son Mohammed.

Now, because of the family's grief, the engagement will be postponed ''for a long time, for at least a year,'' Mohammed, a 22-year-old police officer, said.

AP-NY-11-20-99 0236EST

November 19, 1999

Flight Data Said to Show 'Rock Steady' Plane
By DAVID JOHNSTON and MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON -- A re-examination of information from the flight data recorder on EgyptAir Flight 990, from the time of takeoff to just before the aircraft plunged toward the sea, has uncovered no sign of a mechanical malfunction, government officials said on Thursday.

THE CRASH OF EGYPTAIR 990
The plane was "rock steady," said one aviation expert involved in the case. Like others, the official expressed doubt that anything could have been mechanically wrong with the plane, a 10-year-old Boeing 767, without an indication of some kind on the flight data recorder, a sophisticated instrument that keeps track of 155 categories of information, involving dozens of aircraft systems.
The absence of even a hint of an equipment breakdown was the strongest piece of evidence, both aviation investigators and law enforcement officials said, that someone at the controls of the aircraft might have been responsible for the crash, deliberately forcing the jet into a steep dive. The crash, in the early morning hours of Oct. 31, sent the plane into the Atlantic south of Nantucket Island, killing 217 people, among them 106 Americans.
A government official involved in the case said that while the Egyptians continued to say that the plane's dive, and remarks on the cockpit voice recorder, could be responses to some mechanical problem, they had not so far proposed a theory of what that problem might have been.
American officials have said a relief pilot, whom they identified as Gamil al-Batouti, was in control of the Boeing 767 as the catastrophic events began to unfold about a half-hour into the flight from New York to Cairo. They said a remark he made, which may have been a prayer, made them suspect he deliberately crashed the plane.
On Monday, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency that took over the investigation when Egypt delegated its responsibility to the United States, said the main focus of his agency was to decide whether the crash has been properly investigated as an accident, or whether it was a crime and thus the province of the F.B.I.
In Washington Thursday, a group of investigators arrived from Cairo at about 1 p.m. But with the contents of the tape now a delicate diplomatic issue, the safety board made no official statement. One investigator contrasted the lack of any sign of trouble on EgyptAir 990 with another accident, Swissair Flight 111, another recent crash at sea of a big passenger jet with a modern flight data recorder.
In that case, he said, problems were evident from information picked up on the flight data recorder on the MD-11 jet long before the crew radioed for help. The plane crashed off Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Sept. 2, 1998, killing 229 people.
Thursday, a senior Justice Department official said a decision about whether to transfer the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation from aviation safety officials would probably be made in a few days. The decision is significant because it would, in effect, declare that the authorities suspect the crash was caused by a criminal act, not a mechanical malfunction.
The Justice Department official, Eric H. Holder Jr., said that while United States officials would coordinate with Egyptian officials, American authorities would reach independent judgments about the crash.
"We need to have some further discussions with them before any decisions are ultimately made," said Holder, the deputy attorney general. "But I would not say anything is contingent upon the approval of the Egyptian government."

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