NEWPORT, Rhode Island
Friday, November 12,1999 - 07:53 PM ET
(CBS) New information from investigators is raising even more troubling questions about what was going on in the cockpit of EgytpAir Flight 990, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr.
Refined data from the plane's flight recorder suggests the pilots may have deliberately turned off both engines on the jetliner near the bottom of a terrifying, but controlled high-speed dive.
The flight data recorder now suggests the initial dive of the jetliner was so sudden, so steep and so fast that all on board would have experienced a brief period of weightlessness. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall says the plane was in a "zero-G pitchover" for about 20 seconds.
During the dive, the plane nosed down at a 40-degree angle and reached a speed of more than 680 mph. The data shows a siren went off in the cockpit alerting pilots the plane was flying dangerously fast.
But investigators are most puzzled by what happened next, near the end of the plunge.
First, the two elevators that normally work together on the tail to move the jet up and down were inexplicably deployed in opposite directions, something never done in normal flight. And more importantly, both engines were shut down from the cockpit. The flight data recorder shows both the left and right engine start levers were changed from "run" to "cut-off."
Investigators cannot yet rule out an airplane failure. And the FBI continues to examine criminal possibilities including terrorism, sabotage, skyjacking, suicide or some other issue with a passenger or a crewmember.
But sources tell CBS News the evidence strongly points to deliberate actions in the cockpit. The data now argues against the possibility of a high altitude fire or a massive loss of cabin pressure.
Why would the pilots put the jetliner into a fatal plunge?
The best hope for a definitive answer will be the cockpit voice recorder, when it's found.
But efforts to recover the cockpit voice recorder faced a day of problems.
The USS Grapple began its 8-hour voyage back to the crash site Friday morning, but didn't get the Navy's underwater robot into the water until late in the day.
Meanwhile, its counterpart, the civilian-operated Magnum ROV, spent most of the day on the deck of the Carolyn Chouest, having an electrical problem repaired instead of digging through underwater wreckage.
All of this squandered a rare day of good weather -- by Sunday, more high seas are expected to put the recovery mission for the cockpit voice recorder on hold again.