JIM MCKENNA, Washington | Thursday
US FEDERAL investigators have concluded the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the US Atlantic coast happened as a result of intentional human action, said sources close to the probe.
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.
The Boeing 767 took off at 1:19 am from New York to Cairo. It crashed 29 minutes and 50 seconds later.
All 217 people on board died as a result of the crash.
Data copied from official transcripts of the contents of the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder was released by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Friday, as part of a preliminary factual report into the crash. 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 crashed the plane intentionally.
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 airplane “that would have caused or contributed to” a dive at the speed of sound that preceded the airplane’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 1:50 am (0650 GMT) on October 31, 1999.
They argue that only Batouty could have pushed the airplane 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 1:50 am (0650 GMT), radar data showed the Boeing 767 climbing back up to (7 500 meters), 25 000 feet 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.
Transcript of final minutes in cockpit of EgyptAir Flight 990
The information in capital letters refers to data from the Flight Data Recorder; the comments in quotation marks, translated by the NTSB into English from Arabic, come from the Cockpit Voice Recorder:
01.48:03: Flight 990 is cruising at an altitude of 10 000 meters over the Atlantic Ocean. Flight captain Ahmed al-Habashi tells first officer Gamil al-Battuti he is going for “a quick trip” to the rest room.
01.48:08: first officer: “Please, go ahead.”
:18: sound of door (Gamil El-Battouti is alone in the cockpit)
:39: first officer: “I rely on God”
01:49:45: AUTOMATIC PILOT DISENGAGED MANUALLY
:48: first officer: “I rely on God”
:52: THRUST THROTTLE LEVER RETARDED TO IDLE
:53: AIRCRAFT BEGINS A 40-DEGREE ANGLE DIVE TOWARDS THE OCEAN :57: first officer: “I rely on God”
:58: first officer: “I rely on God”
(LOW-HIGH TONES OF THE AURAL MASTER WARNING)
01:50:00: first officer: “I rely on God”
:01: first officer: “I rely on God”
:02: first officer: “I rely on God”
:04: first officer: “I rely on God”
:05: first officer: “I rely on God”
:06: flight captain (returning to cockpit): “What’s happening? What’s happening?”
:07: first officer: “I rely on God”
:08: TONES OF AURAL MASTER CAUTION
: first officer: “I rely on God”
: flight captain: “What’s happening?”
:15: flight captain: “What’s happening, Gamil? What’s happening?”
:19: TONES OF AURAL WARNING
:21: RIGHT ENGINE START LEVER MANUALLY SWITCHED FROM “RUN” TO “CUTOFF” POSITION
:22: LEFT ENGINE START LEVER MANUALLY SWITCHED FROM “RUN” TO “CUTOFF” POSITION
: ELEVATORS SPLIT IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION (these surface controls, located on the tail of the airplane, command the up or down movement of the aircraft’s nose. They normally move simultaneously in the same direction.
Experts argue this could indicate a struggle for control of the aircraft, with the flight captain pulling the control column up and the first officer pushing the column forward.
EgyptAir officials have said the split could have been caused by the shock wave caused by the speed the aircraft was diving at, which was close to Mach 1.
:24: flight captain: “What is this? What is this? Did you shut the engine?”
:26: flight captain: “Get away in the engines”
(sic)
:28: flight captain: “Shut the engines”
:29: first officer: “It’s shut”
:31: flight captain: “Pull”
:32: flight captain: “Pull with me”
:34: flight captain: “Pull with me”
:36: flight captain: “Pull with me”
:38: END OF COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER – AFP