Saturday, May 17, 2008
U.S., Egyptian officials try to stop the finger-pointing about the Flight 990 crash.
Nov 19, 1999 | On Thursday, U.S. officials and the media took a giant step backward from their rush to judgment about the cause of the EgyptAir crash. State Department spokesman James Rubin urged the media not to jump to conclusions -- most notably, Wednesday's widespread reporting that the crash looked like a pilot suicide -- saying Egypt is experiencing a "great trauma" and that "a maximum degree of cooperation and tact" is necessary in the investigation.
In an interview with CNN's "Larry King Live," Nabil Fahmi, Egypt's ambassador to the United States, said, "It does bother me that information has been leaked" about the investigation. He urged consideration for the "pain and suffering" of the families.
"It's also important not to feed into speculation by providing piecemeal information," the ambassador said. "Not all of the information that is out there is correct. And even the information that is out there is not necessarily the full story. We want the truth."
Fahmi also spoke with NBC's "Today" show on Thursday. He said he had listened to the tape of the cockpit voice recorder. When asked if the pilot's statement "sounds like a statement of suicide," he replied, "No, it does not."
The BBC put together profiles of the pilots, including job history with EgyptAir and quotes from family members.
Tensions rose between Egyptians and FBI investigators throughout the day Wednesday as reports of the cockpit voice recorder transcript trickled through the Western media. The new revelations heightened suspicions of a criminal sabotage of EgyptAir Flight 990, though no official confirmation of those suspicions has been given.
While the National Transportation Safety Board is officially mum on the details of the transcript, various media reports on Wednesday quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that investigators now believe a relief pilot named Gamil El Batouti took control of the plane and deliberately plunged it into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 217 people aboard.
The New York Times reported in its Wednesday editions that "a detailed analysis of the voice and data recorders aboard Flight 990 indicates that a crew member, possibly a relief pilot, was responsible" for the crash.
According to the Times, the suspect, a 59-year-old veteran EgyptAir employee, uttered "Tawakilt ala Allah," which is roughly translated as "I put my faith in God" or "I entrust myself to God," before pointing the plane toward the ocean.
The Times said government officials believe the plane's captain, Ahmed al-Habashi, had left the cockpit and struggled in vain upon his return to take back control. The crew member originally believed to have uttered the prayer, Adel Anwar, was on board, but not in the cockpit, officials said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press revealed more alarming details of the transcript. AP quotes an unnamed federal official as saying that the crew member, whose identity he would not confirm, said, "I made my decision now" just before the autopilot was turned off and the plane began its deadly plunge into the Atlantic.
The new revelations came after Tuesday's confusion and mixed messages from media reports and government agencies. As newspaper headlines screamed that the investigation was being handed over to the FBI, the NTSB delayed plans to turn over leadership of the EgyptAir crash because of concerns by Egyptian government officials that such a move indicated that criminal activity is suspected.
News organizations, including CNN, reported that the Egyptian government is "extremely sensitive" to the decision to label the investigation criminal, according to officials close to the probe.
At a news conference late Tuesday afternoon, NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said that additional Egyptian authorities and experts would join the investigation to "process and analyze" information related to the crash.
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