EgyptAir 990 Crash Remains a Mystery

WASHINGTON —  The puzzling plunge of EgyptAir Flight 990 last October off the coast of New England officially remains a mystery, despite an intensive investigation by U.S. and Egyptian authorities that so far has lasted 286 days.

In releasing 1,665 pages of investigative reports Friday, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said: “There is no analysis as to the cause of the crash.”

Nonetheless, parts of the documents suggest the validity of an original U.S. theory: that co-pilot Gamil Batouty may deliberately have plunged the jetliner into the Atlantic.

Egyptian authorities, who have rejected such a scenario from the beginning, insisted Friday that “there is nothing . . . to indicate that Flight 990 was intentionally crashed into the ocean.”

Jim Hall, the NTSB chairman, said his board simply was making public the “factual information gathered to date.” He thanked Egyptian aviation authorities for their cooperation. Of the cause of the Oct. 31 crash that killed all 217 people on board, including 100 Americans and 89 Egyptians, “that will be developed in the future and released by the board in its final report,” he said.

Asked why the agency does not plan a public hearing on the crash, which occurs in most cases, Hall said his staff concluded that “there are no unresolved safety issues that require a hearing.” The long investigation “ruled out most failure modes” in the Boeing 767 involved, he said.

The transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, recovered from the crash site and made public Friday, indicates Capt. Ahmed Habashy, the pilot, apparently returning to the cockpit after a bathroom break, asking co-pilot Batouty, “What’s happening, what’s happening?” as he found the plane in a steep dive.

The flight data recorder shows that the plane’s autopilot had been turned off and that Batouty was flying the aircraft.

“What is this? Did you shut the engines?” asked Habashy, who then struggled to pull the plane out of the dive. The transcript did not show an immediate response from Batouty.

The flight data recorder shows that, just seconds before Habashy asked about the engines, first the right, then the left engine lever was switched from “run” to “cutoff.”

About a minute and a half later, the captain exhorted: “Pull with me. Pull with me. Pull with me”--just before the recording goes dead.

During these moments, Batouty repeats 10 times a prayer-like Arabic phrase rendered as “I rely on God.”

The jetliner was less than an hour out of New York and headed for Cairo when the crash occurred.

Egyptian authorities, as well as members of Batouty’s family, have strongly denied that he had any motive to commit suicide or kill hundreds of others in the process. Islamic experts have noted that suicide was counter to Batouty’s religious beliefs.

U.S. aviation authorities said privately that the inquiry has been handled carefully to avoid offending Egypt, a key U.S. ally in Middle East peace efforts. Egyptian attempts to demonstrate scenarios in which Batouty could have lost control of the plane were painstakingly reviewed in Boeing simulators--without convincing results, authorities said.

However, an EgyptAir official said Friday that the accident could have been caused by malfunctions in the aircraft’s elevator control system, precipitating the plane’s steep dive.

Capt. Shaker Kelada, vice president of safety for the airline, who headed the EgyptAir team that worked closely with NTSB investigators, said that metallurgical analysis of Flight 990 wreckage showed that rivets on two of three bell cranks in the right elevator were sheared in a direction that would force the elevator down. Elevators are two small winglike surfaces on the tail assembly that control the up-or-down angle of the nose.

Kelada also criticized parts of an FBI investigation into the backgrounds of the flight’s crew members that suggested Batouty might have engaged in lewd conduct in New York. One document said that Batouty had been investigated by a New York hotel’s security staff for incidents that included exposing himself and making sexual advances to staff and guests.

The report, if true, could show psychological instability. Hall said that the report was included because it could have “potential” relevance to the NTSB investigation. Kelada, however, said that the allegations are “largely unsubstantiated.”

More than 150 investigators and aviation analysts worked to compile the findings. The safety board posted all the reports on its Web site: https://www.ntsb.gov.