-
- NEW YORK (PRNewswire) - Two
weeks after EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing
all aboard, a government official told Newsweek that behind closed doors
Boeing is pushing the theory that a cockpit struggle broke out in the EgyptAir
flight, leading to the crash. Boeing officials bristle at the suggestion
that the company is trying to steer official investigations to their advantage.
"Ridiculous," says spokeswoman Lor Gunter, reports Investigative
Correspondent Mark Hosenball in the current issue.
-
-
- A senior Justice Department official told Newsweek, "The
possibility of a cockpit struggle, a suicide, or the presence of an intruder
in the cockpit is clearly something we're looking at very, very seriously."
While investigators continue to review information from the flight-data
recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- recovered late Saturday night
-- sources at Boeing tell Newsweek the black box clearly shows that the
autopilot was disconnected deliberately by someone in the cockpit.
-
- Meanwhile, investigators are wary of jumping to conclusions.
Though they concede the flight crew's odd actions aren't easily explained
by a mechanical glitch or a standard emergency procedure, officials caution
that they are still waiting for critical evidence that could give a fuller
picture of what happened, writes Hosenball in the November 22 issue of
Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, November 15).
-
- The recovery of the cockpit voice recorder and the final
few seconds on the black-box data recorder may shed some light on puzzling
information received so far, such as the shutdown of the plane's two engines
during the rapid descent. The move left investigators utterly perplexed.
"This is all weird," said one airplane-industry source. "Nobody's
got a clue" why anyone would cut the engines in the middle of a steep
descent.
-
- SOURCE Newsweek Web Site: http://www.newsweek.com
-
- __________
-
- Black Box May Not Solve EgyptAir Mystery
-
- 11-15-99
-
- NEWPORT, R.I. (CBC News)
- There are reports that the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the
bottom of the Atlantic on the weekend may not solve the deadly crash of
EgyptAir Flight 990.
-
- Instead the tape appears to deepen the mystery, according
to a source quoted by the Associated Press late Sunday.
-
- The Boeing 767 plunged into the ocean off Nantucket Island
two weeks ago killing 217 people, including 21 Canadians.
-
- The pilots did not send a distress signal, and the flight
data recorder indicated that both of the jet's engines had been turned
off manually.
-
- Investigators had been counting on information from the
cockpit voice recorder, recovered late Saturday by the navy's underwater
robot Deep Drone, to explain what happened.
-
- But it reveals little beyond the pilots having a friendly
conversation before suddenly trying to solve an unknown problem that gets
progressively worse, according to the Associated Press source.
-
- The recorder is now at the U.S. National Transportation
Safety Board Laboratory in Washington Sunday being reviewed by experts.
-
- Investigators have refused to speculate about what might
have happened, saying that the cockpit voice recorder was needed before
they could draw any conclusions.
-
- But other aviation experts believe it's possible someone
intentionally crashed the plane -- either a member of the crew, or an intruder
who ran in the cockpit.
-
- Investigators have reviewed the health records of the
pilot and co-pilot -- a decision that angered EgyptAir.
-
- Company officials say the pilots were among the airline's
best, and that both men had recently passed physical and psychological
tests.
-
- The airline says the investigation shouldn't concentrate
solely on pilot error.
-
- U.S. officials say they're not leaning toward any specific
theory. They say all possible causes, including mechanical, are under investigation.
|
