EgyptAir Flight 990

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**EgyptAir Flight 990**
Summary
Date	October 31, 1999
Type	Deliberate crash
Site	Atlantic Ocean, 100 km (60 miles) S of Nantucket
Fatalities	217
Injuries	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 767-366ER
Operator	EgyptAir
Tail number	SU-GAP
Ship name	Tuthmosis III
Passengers	203
Crew	14
Survivors	0

Flight 990 was a Los Angeles-New York-Cairo flight operated by EgyptAir. On October 31, 1999, at around 1:50 a.m. EST, Flight 990 dove into the Atlantic Ocean, about 60 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

Radar and radio contact with the Boeing 767-366ER aircraft (Registration number: SU-GAP) was lost 30 minutes after the aircraft departed JFK Airport in New York on its flight to Cairo. The flight departed from its assigned altitude (FL330: 33,000 feet) and dove to 16,000 feet, then climbed again to 24,000 then continued to dive, hitting the Atlantic Ocean within the span of 36 seconds.

The flight was carrying 14 crew members (4 flight crewmembers composed of a command and relief flight crew each containing a captain and first officer, plus 10 flight attendants) and 203 passengers from seven countries (Canada, Egypt, Germany, Sudan, Syria, United States, and Zimbabwe). Included in the passenger manifest were high ranking Egyptian military officers.

Flight data showed that the flight controls were used to move the elevators in order to initiate and sustain the steep dive. Forces on the captain's and first officer's control columns were recorded and completely consistent with the recorded elevator deflections and a struggle for control of the aircraft. There were no other aircraft in the area. There was no indication that an explosion occurred on board. The engines operated normally for the entire flight until they shut down and the left engine was torn from the wing from the stress of the maneuvers.

An investigation by the NTSB determined that the relief first officer, Gamil Al-Batouti, at the controls while the captain was out of the cabin, turned off the autopilot, and deliberately crashed the plane into the ocean, while calmly reciting "Tawakalt ala Allah" ("I put my trust in God") and counteracting the captain's efforts to recover from the dive. His motivation for these actions can only be guessed and is not addressed by the NTSB, but suicide or homicidal intentions towards some of the passengers or crew are possibilities in light of the NTSB analysis.

The investigation and its results drew criticism from the Egyptian Government, which advanced several alternate theories about mechanical malfunction of the aircraft. In Western countries, the Egyptian rejection of the NTSB report was attributed to a strong Egyptian cultural aversion to suicide. The theories proposed by Egyptian authorities were tested by the NTSB, and none were found to match the facts. For example, an elevator assembly hardover (in which the elevator in a fully extended position sticks because the hinge catches on the tail frame) proposed by the Egyptians was discounted, because the flight recorder data showed the elevator was in a "split condition". In this state, one side of the elevator is up and the other down; on the 767, this condition is only possible through flight control input (e.g., one yoke is pushed forward, the other pulled backward).

This air accident has never been considered to be a result of al Qaeda terrorism. Unlike the 9/11 hijackings, the captain of the EgyptAir 990 flight left the cockpit as routine and not in response to an altercation in the passenger cabin. Likewise, no evidence has ever surfaced to indicate that anyone other than the co-pilot was in the cockpit when the aircraft began its dive, however flight crews are trained to place aircraft into sharp dives in order to disrupt hijacking attempts. The prayer uttered by the co-pilot is one of exclamation but could also have preceded the suicide.

The story of the flight has been featured in the National Geographic television show "Air Emergency". In the show, the flight is dramatized based on ATC tapes as well as the CVR recordings. In interviews conducted for the program, Al-Batouti's family members continue to vehemently dispute the suicide/deliberate crash theories, and dismiss them as biased. The program implies he crashed the plane for personal reasons, among them the risk of defamation of his character due to misconduct outside of work. The dramatization of the crash also depicts Al-Batouti forcing the plane down with the pilot attempting to pull the plane up. Despite this, upon conclusion the program stresses the official NTSB conclusion which makes no mention of a suicide mission or a deliberate crash. Rather, it simply states that the crash was a direct result of actions made by the co-pilot.

An additional item of note is that there were several high-ranking Egyptian officials aboard this flight.