As Flier Is Investigated, Family Outraged

CAIRO â€”  Gamil Batouty was affluent, affable and not deeply religious. Although a practicing Muslim, he was known to take a drink of alcohol occasionally, dance and “do what a man does.â€� He pampered his children, and he especially cherished the daughter who came to him late in life.

That was the portrait that emerged from children, relatives and neighbors Wednesday of the man who has been identified by U.S. sources as the EgyptAir co-pilot heard reciting a short prayer before Flight 990 began its dive into the Atlantic.

Family members were incredulous and outraged at the allegations that the 59-year-old father of five was the possible perpetrator of a crash that killed 217 people. As one relative asked: Would a man bent on killing himself and several hundred passengers have instructed his son to meet him at the airport to pick up a pair of new car tires?

Batouty’s wife, Omayma, grieving over the loss of her husband 2 1/2 weeks ago, collapsed Tuesday night when she heard suggestions in the U.S. media that her husband was responsible for the disaster, said their son Karim.

“She had been consoling herself that he was a martyr, and now they have taken away even that,� the 21-year-old business student said bitterly.

Skepticism That Crash Was Deliberate

As Egypt dispatched its chief of civil aviation to the United States to review the crash evidence, officials here voiced skepticism about the scenarios emerging that the disaster was deliberately induced by a pilot.

Safwat Sharif, the information minister, said Egypt awaits a formal conclusion by U.S. agencies. “What is being said in the foreign media in the way of analysis is nothing but speculation, assumption and imagination that does not rise to the level of fact,� Sharif told Egyptians in a statement read on the national television news.

The Egyptian Pilots’ Federation leaped to the defense of Batouty and the other pilots on Flight 990. “There has been no record of a single suicide in the history of Egyptian aviation,� federation head Walid Murad said.

“It’s against the religion, our faith, to commit suicide,� pointed out Sharif Batouty, a nephew of the deceased co-pilot. “So if you are going to commit suicide, you don’t say, ‘Please, God, help me do it.’ �

Tall and solidly built, Gamil Batouty was looked up to by those who knew him, said Madiha Shami, a neighbor of 30 years. “It is a shame that the press are trying to contact his wife and talk this way about a very fine man. . . . All in the building speak about his kindness.�

Batouty made his home in Heliopolis, a comparably well-off district near the international airport. He lived in a modern mid-rise apartment building that is dust-coated by the pollution and sand that waft through Cairo.

Plainclothes police outside the building deterred journalists Wednesday, but two of Batouty’s sons, Mohammed and Karim, admitted a few reporters to dispel the falsehoods they say are being circulated about their father, a 35-year EgyptAir pilot who also taught flying to military and civil aviators.

In an apartment bearing all the hallmarks of an upper-income Egyptian household--big television, multiple couches, stuffed chairs, chrome-and-glass bookshelves and several cell phones--22-year-old Mohammed said his father “sounded normal� when they last spoke Oct. 29, two days before the crash. He said he was the last family member to have talked to his father.

According to Mohammed, Batouty called from Los Angeles just to check on the desired color of a winter jacket that Mohammed had asked for earlier. The elder Batouty also told Mohammed to be on hand at the airport when he got back to pick up the tires he was buying in the United States.

Mohammed--who admitted to being indulged by his father because of his low wages as a police officer--said that during the brief call, he told his father he needed spending money and that the elder Batouty agreed to send $300 with an EgyptAir colleague that same day. Mohammed said there was nothing ominous about it--like any young man, he had wanted the cash as soon as possible.

Sharif Batouty was acting as the family’s chief spokesman. He insisted that there was nothing in his uncle’s life or background that even remotely could have caused him to commit suicide.

He particularly dismissed reports that had appeared in the semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper that the family was in economic difficulty because of medical bills associated with treating Batouty’s 10-year-old daughter, Aya, for lupus--an immune disorder of the connective tissue--at UCLA Medical Center.

“We don’t know from where Gamil has been thrown into this,� he said of the crash speculation. “He is not a religious man, not at all. He is a normal, sarcastic guy who loves fun. . . . He was a very normal person.�

Sharif Batouty emphasized that the family is an old and well-established clan and that the pilot was “filthy rich� from his long career and family money. He had a substantial land inheritance from their familial village and a salary equivalent to more than $100,000 a year. He was also due to receive an end-of-service bonus of about $73,000 when he retired next year, in addition to a pilot’s pension. Because of their wealth, the family had never bought life insurance, Sharif said.

In addition to the apartment, Gamil Batouty owned a vacation villa on Egypt’s north coast and a car. He had recently launched a nursery business with a friend to supply trees and shrubs to the development projects taking shape in new desert suburbs outside Cairo.

Batouty’s wife and daughter Aya had fled to still another family home in Cairo’s 10th of Ramadan suburb to avoid the media. But other members of the extended family were gathering in the apartment to consider how best to defend the family’s honor.

The Batouty sons, Sharif Batouty and another cousin, Galal Batouty, a gynecologist, all dismissed published suggestions that Gamil Batouty was distraught because of his young daughter’s medical condition. She had been taken by her father several times to the United States for treatment.

Karim Batouty said Aya was due to travel to the United States with her father and mother this month if it had not been for the crash but that doctors were optimistic about the young girl’s prognosis and considered her “80% cured.�

Sharif said Batouty regarded Aya, who was born when he was near 49, as a special gift. Indicating the smiling face of the dark-haired girl whose portrait hung on the wall, Karim said: “Aya was the future of his life.�

Amid their unhappiness, the family did get a reassuring phone call Wednesday from top EgyptAir officials, Sharif Batouty said.

The head of operations for the airline spoke to Karim to assure him that his father was still highly regarded by his colleagues.

“He told him that ‘Your father is the last person on Earth that anyone would question his integrity,’ � Sharif Batouty quoted the official as saying.

The family members said they have seen no convincing proof that Batouty was even in the cockpit.

Rushed to Cockpit in Emergency, Cousin Says

Galal Batouty said that his uncle’s normal routine for the last 10 years was to fly the New York-Los Angeles leg of the EgyptAir flight, and that alone signified that he was among the airline’s most respected pilots--entrusted to fly over the continental United States. On the return trip, Sharif said, Batouty--as backup pilot--normally would have been sitting in the first-class cabin for the early part of the journey.

If Batouty was heard speaking a prayer on the cockpit microphone, the only explanation is that he had rushed in when he realized something was wrong with the flight, Galal said.

Sharif said he shares the suspicion of many Egyptians that there is a plot by U.S. officials to blame the Egyptian pilots to cover up either a mechanical failure on the U.S.-built aircraft or a breach of security in the United States that allowed terrorists to destroy it.

“Boeing or whoever is trying to blame the pilots,� he said. That the aircraft carried 33 Egyptian military officers has been seen by many here as a reason that the plane may have been blown up by Israeli agents or other unknown enemies.

A typical comment came this week from Mustafa Mahmoud, a regular contributor to the Al-Ahram newspaper, who wrote that he strongly suspects “a pre-meditated act of sabotage with the Mossad behind it.�