FBI Asked to Take Over
Probe as Co-Pilot
Suspected of Sabotage
FBI agents tag the cockpit voice
recorder from the ill-fated EgyptAir
Flight 990. The FBI may take over the
investigation from the National
Transportation Safety Board because of
suspicions of sabotage. (Isaac D.
Merriman/Reuters)
Nov. 15 — The National Transportation Safety Board has asked the FBI to take over the investigation into what brought down EgyptAir Flight 990 because of indications that the plane’s co-pilot deliberately forced the plane to dive, sources tell ABCNEWS.
What is pushing the investigation forward is the sequence of events on the tape from the cockpit voice recorder. This began shortly after the plane leveled off at its cruising altitude of 33,000 feet. Investigators believe the chief pilot of the aircraft left the plane’s cockpit and shortly afterwards, the co-pilot, now alone in the cockpit, initiated the aircraft’s descent. Investigators are focusing on a religious prayer or statement made by the co-pilot just as the plane began its plunge into the sea, sources told ABCNEWS’ John Miller.
“Somewhere on that tape the co-pilot makes a statement in Arabic of a religious nature that has some reference of going into death, apparently right around the time when the plane started its dive,” Miller reported on World News Tonight.
Investigators have not been specific about the exact words on the tape but said that given the circumstances, they were disturbing and out of context. The Oct. 31 crash about 60 miles off Massachusetts’ Nantucket Island killed all 217 people on board.
Two crews were on board the plane, a primary crew and a relief crew, and it is unclear which crew was on duty at the time of the crash. ABCNEWS aviation analyst John Nance said that if this interpretation of the data from the cockpit voice recorder is confirmed, it would help to explain what has been confusing investigators until now. “The problem that we’ve had up until now is that nothing fit,” Nance said. The information obtained by ABCNEWS “is the only scenario that comes a country mile of making sense.”
FBI Wants to Review Analysis
ABCNEWS has also learned that NTSB Chairman James Hall spoke to FBI Director Louis Freeh today and requested that the FBI take over the case. The FBI has not yet agreed to take over the investigation from the NTSB, the primary federal agency that is responsible for airplane crashes. FBI officials want to review the tapes and the NTSB’s analysis first, sources said.
During a news conference today, Hall refused to discuss the details of the tape but did indicated that the NTSB might cede the case to the FBI.
“We are concentrating our efforts on determining from the evidence whether or not this investigation is to remain under the leadership of the National Transportation Safety Board,” Hall told reporters.
Ever since the Cairo-bound Boeing 767 crashed about half an hour after taking off from New York’s JFK Airport, investigators have been perplexed as to the causes of the accident. The crew did not issue any distress calls, there was no indication of a midair explosion like the one that destroyed TWA Flight 800 three years ago and there were no clear signs of a mechanical malfunction. The discovery of the flight data recorder only intensified the mystery. Preliminary results from the recorder showed that 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.
Struggle for Control of Plane?
Sources said the tape indicates the plane’s autopilot became disengaged around the time the co-pilot made his religious remark. Seconds later, the plane began a steep, controlled dive.
At some point, the pilot returned to the cockpit and he and the co-pilot both operated the plane’s controls. Information from the flight data recorder showed that when the plane reached 21,000 feet, the two “elevators” that help direct the plane were set in different positions. Nance said that one possible explanation for this is that the pilot may have been trying to bring the plane back up while the co-pilot wanted to force it down.
The plane’s engines were cut off moments later and when the plane reached 16,000 feet, it began to rise again. Radar data indicated that the plane rose back to about 22,000 feet before it turned and dropped into the ocean. Nance said that the crash was now looking like “a SilkAir incident.” On Dec. 19, 1997, a SilkAir 737 crashed on its Jakarta-Singapore run, killing all 104 people on board. Investigators suspect the pilot crashed the plane on purpose.
Weather Hinders Search
Crews trying to recover clues in Flight 990’s wreckage were thwarted today because of weather — a common problem in the crash site efforts in the two weeks since the plane went down, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Jack O’Neill. “All the ships have been moved from the area because the sea state is so terrible out there,” he said. “We’re looking at three solid days of 12- to 13-foot seas.” Navy crews had completed preliminary mapping of the ocean floor, O’Neill said, and started looking more closely at areas “that look like they could be something.” But there have been no major finds so far, O’Neill said. “It’s usually just clam beds,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.