MYSTERIOUS ENGINE FAILURE DOOMED EGYPTAIR 990
UFO ROUNDUP Volume 4 Number 31 November 25, 1999 Editor: Joseph Trainor Masinaigan@aol.com

Recovery of the cockpit voice recorder from jetliner EgyptAir 990, which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean during the early morning hours of Sunday, October 31, 1999, has allowed the investigators to piece together the doomed aircraft's final flight.

Both of the Boeing 767's jet turbofan engines shut down during the final minutes before impact. And the plane's flight recorders and altitude- reporting trnsponder also stopped working.

The Boeing 767 "delivered new to Egypt in 1989, was powered by two Pratt & Whitney engines. It had proven reliable and efficient; it had logged 33,219 hours of flight time, almost as many hours as the combined tally of its experienced command crew of four captains and first officers."

"Flight 990's pilot, Ahmed Mahoud Mohammed Habashy, was one of the airline's most senior and respected fliers, a veteran of 35 years in the skies."

The co-pilot was Gameel Batouti, 59, "a former Egyptian Air Force pilot who faced mandatory retirement in March" of 2000.

Flight 990 took off at 1:19 a.m. on October 31. "Takeoff and ascent were normal. Flight 990 began climbing to the southeast. At about 120 miles out, it was vectored to the northeast and settled in for the long overwater flight (from New York City to Cairo) at 33,000 feet (10,000 meters).

"At 1:43 a.m., a routine radio transmission was made to air traffic control."

"Early in the flight, according to sources familiar with the investigation, Batouti, the relief co-pilot, entered the cockpit and asked to fly, even though he wasn't scheduled to take over until far later in the trip. Batouti was given the co-pilot's chair."

"Half an hour into the flight, with the plane at cruising altitude, Capt. Habashy got up, exchanged a few words with the co-pilot and left the cockpit, perhaps to use the bathroom, perhaps to get some coffee."

"Sometime in the next five minutes, the co-pilot, believed to be Batouti, recited a fragment of a Muslim prayer, "Tawakilt ala Allah." (Or, to give the Arabic a free translation, "I put myself in the hands of God."--J.T.)

"At 1:49 a.m. and 45 seconds, investigators now believe, the co-pilot clicked twice on the red button on his control column, switching off the autopilot."

"Eight seconds later, the co-pilot pushed his control column forward, tilting the plane over into a dive. The plane's tail raised up; the nose pointed down. The dive was so steep that 14 seconds later Flight 990 reached a zero-gravity state, meaning its passengers felt weightless--a condition that lasted about 20 seconds."

"At almost the same time, Flight 990 surpassed its maximum allowed speed and plummeted at up to 94 percent the speed of sound (Mach 1). A warning alarm sounded and, because of the zero-gravity state, engine oil pressure dropped."

"Capt. Habashy rushed back to the cockpit. "By some accounts, he got back into his seat and said, 'What's going on?' or 'What's happening?' Moments later, the same voice (Habashy's--J.T.): 'Pull with me! Pull with me!'"

At 1:50 a.m. and 22 seconds, two odd things happened."

"Two devices on the tail began to point in opposite directions--one commanding the plane to dive, the other positioning it to climb. The 'climb' device was being controlled from the pilot's side while the 'dive' device was controlled from the co-pilot's side."

"These left and right elevators, which normally operate in tandem to control the craft's up and down movements--split (my emphasis--J.T.) apparently the result of two pilots pulling and pushing hard in opposite directions on their control columns."

"Flight 990 kept diving, kept picking up speed, plummeting towards the Atlantic."

"At almost the same moment, someone shut down the engines (my emphasis--J.T.), a deliberate step that requires pulling up a shield and pulling a switch. It cannot be done accidentally."

"In the final seconds before the flight recorders stopped working, someone deployed the plane's speed brakes, panels mounted atop the wing that can help a plane descend without overspeeding. Those familiar with aerodynamics say that such a maneuver would only cause the plane to descend even more forcefully and make it difficult to climb. The speed brake handle is on the pilot's side of the cockpit."

"Nonetheless, for a few seconds at least, Flight 990 seemed to be coming out of its dive, investigators said Wednesday," November 17, 1999.

"But not for long. Perhaps eight seconds after the engine shutdown, the plane's recorders and the altitude- reporting transponder stopped working (my emphasis--J.T.) But radar shows the airplane climbing back to 24,000 feet."

"The climb didn't last long. Before 2 a.m., Flight 990 stalled, plunged abd broke apart."

All 217 people aboard were killed when the jetliner hit the ocean just off the coast of Massachusetts.

"Debris scattered for about 60 miles off the Massachusetts coast. Few remains were found of the 217 people aboard. There was never so much as a distress call from the plane."

The crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 has been a hot-button issue in the Egyptian press. "The most popular conspiracy theory making the rounds involves a plot by the Mossad, Israel's secret service, to destroy the Boeing 767 in retaliation for the United States passing military know-how to the 33 Egyptian soldiers on board," who were returning to Cairo after a military assignment in the USA.

"Mustafa Bakri, editor of the weekly Al-Osboa newspaper, says most (Egyptian) people believe the U.S. or Israeli governments had a hand in Flight 990's fate."

"'I'm suspicious about the delay in picking up the two black boxes and the lack of bodies,' he says, holding up a headline that reads CIA Touches Black Boxes before their Release."

During a heated two-hour meeting in Cairo on Monday, November 22, 1999, Egyptian transportation chief Ibrahim Demiri told the assembly, "Our investigation confirmed that the accident was not a result of human error. This was presented to the president (i.e. Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt--J.T.), and he called President Clinton." (See the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for November 21, 1999, "Questions about EgyptAir Flight 990 linger," page 13A. Also USA Today for November 19, 1999, "Crash conspiracy theories abound," page 3A, and USA Today for November 23, 1999, "Egypt's report on crash steers away from sabotage," page 1A.)

(Editor's Comment: I have just one question about Flight 990. In the original underwater photos of the wrecked cockpit, is the safety shield over the engine cutoff switch up or down?)