Pilots Mystified By EgyptAir Crash 11-13-99

<b><font size=4>Flight 990 Mystery Deepens</b></font>

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<li><i>Pilots May Have Deliberately Shut Down Engines

<li>Plane Was Flying Dangerously Fast

<li>Cockpit Voice Recorder Still Buried Beneath Debris</i>

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<font size=1>NEWPORT, Rhode Island<br>

Friday, November 12,1999 - 07:53 PM ET </font>

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<b>(CBS)</b> New information from investigators is raising even more troubling questions about what was going on in the cockpit of EgytpAir Flight 990, reports <b>CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr.</b>

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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.

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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 <b>"zero-G pitchover"</b> for about 20 seconds.

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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.





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But investigators are most puzzled by what happened next, near the end of the plunge.

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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."

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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.

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But sources tell <b>CBS News</b> 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.

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Why would the pilots put the jetliner into a fatal plunge?

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The best hope for a definitive answer will be the cockpit voice recorder, when it's found.

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But efforts to recover the cockpit voice recorder faced a day of problems.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica" SIZE="+1"><B>EgyptAir Flight 990 Data Inconclusive</B></FONT><BR> <BR> <FONT SIZE="2">

<I>By Don Phillips and David A. Vise</I><BR>

Washington Post Staff Writers<BR>

Saturday, November 13, 1999; Page A1 <BR> </FONT>

<P><FONT FACE="arial,helvetica" SIZE="-1" COLOR="#333333"> <B><P>The pilots of EgyptAir Flight 990 deliberately pushed their plane into a sharp dive, but investigators so far see no evidence of fire, loss of pressure in the cabin or any other obvious reason for them to descend at all, according to data released yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board.</B> </FONT></P>

<P><P>The dive was so violent that unbelted passengers would have floated about the cabin.</P>





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<P>There also is some preliminary indication that late in the dive, the two pilots may have been pushing and pulling hard in opposite directions on the controls. That analysis of the data by outside experts is not conclusive. If the pilots were struggling with the controls, there is no way yet to determine whether they were fighting with each other or with other passengers, or had panicked.</P>







<P> <P>The new raw information from the aircraft's flight data recorder adds to the growing pile of evidence but does little to help investigators understand why the plane crashed in early Oct. 31, killing all 217 people on board. </P>

<P>Safety board officials say it is becoming even more vital that they locate the Boeing 767's cockpit voice recorder, buried in the silt about 250 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean, about 60 miles off the Massachusetts coast. Two unmanned submersibles, operating from Navy and civilian ships, have been probing along the dark ocean floor whenever weather allows. Rear Adm. William Sutton said the sea promises to be calm this weekend. </P>

<P> <P>Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall, at a briefing in Newport, R.I., was careful to release only raw data with little or no interpretation. But hints in his statement, along with interpretation from aviation professionals and technical information provided by the Boeing Co. and Boeing manuals, paints a picture of a deliberate pilot-induced dive for no apparent reason followed by a number of pilot actions that are not used in normal flight. </P>

<P> <P>The pilots appeared to be manipulating the plane's controls until the end of the recorder tape that has been read so far. </P>

<P> <P>Investigators caution that it is too early in the probe to rule out any cause including the possibility the pilots were distracted or confused by some mechanical defect that did not show up on the recorder. </P>

<P> <P>Hall said work remains to be done with the data recorder, including restoration of data on the last five seconds of water-damaged tape. The safety board's policy is to release data as soon as it becomes available, day by day. </P>

<P> <P>Hall said that about eight seconds before the plane began its descent, its autopilot disengaged. </P>

<P> <P>Then, power to the engines was reduced. Throttle positions in the cockpit were "consistent with this power reduction," he said, apparently meaning the crew rather than some mechanical defect pulled power back. Elevators, flat panels that control up and down movements, then pushed the plane into a power dive. </P>

<P> <P>"For the next 20 seconds," Hall said, the dive produced a zero-gravity situation in the plane. That means passengers, beverage carts and anything not tied down was weightless and would have floated about the cabin. </P>

<P> <P>About halfway through this portion of the descent, the aircraft reached its maximum speed – 86 percent of the speed of sound – and a "master warning" activated. Hall said a master warning would activate for one of five reasons: airplane overspeed; loss of cabin pressure; an autopilot disconnect not initiated by the pilots; fire; or improper takeoff and landing configurations. </P>

<P> <P>It is significant that the master warning did not sound until that point, apparently from overspeed. This strongly indicates that a pilot turned off the autopilot, and that there was no loss of cabin pressure or fire that would lead the pilots to descend. </P>

<P> <P>The plane reached a 40-degree nose-down pitch angle and a speed of mach .94 during this portion of the dive, Hall said. Engine oil pressure dropped, but Boeing said this would be normal in a zero-gravity situation. </P>

<P> <P>Then the nose-down angle began to lessen, and the plane began to pull out of the dive, producing a downward force of 2.5 times the speed of gravity. This is far more typical of the forces on fighter planes than on a commercial airliner, but is still within the capabilities of a Boeing 767. </P>

<P> <P>At that point, Hall said, "the data show a split between the left and right elevator positions" – meaning that the devices that usually move in tandem moved in opposite directions. </P>

<P> <P>A Boeing spokesman said that the aircraft's "design allows for split elevators," but would not comment further. </P>

<P> <P>Boeing manuals detail a "column breakout" mechanism that gives way if pilots are pushing with at least 50 pounds of pressure in opposite directions on the control column, allowing the elevators to split a limited distance. </P>

<P> <P>For some unexplained reason, the pilots then shut down both engines. </P>

<P> <P>From radar data, investigators know that the plane then climbed from about 16,000 feet to about 24,000 feet and began a final plunge into the ocean. There is no flight data recorder data for this period because it and the plane's radar transponder stopped at 16,700 feet. </P>

<P> <P>However, aviators say a plane moving that fast would climb naturally even if the pilots let go of the controls. Other sources familiar with radar data say it seems likely the plane stalled at 24,000 feet and fell out of control. </P>

<P> <P>At any time that the safety board uncovered any criminal act in this crash, the FBI would automatically take over the investigation. However, there is no indication they are ready to do so. </P>

<P> <P>While the FBI says it is continuing to mount an aggressive investigation into the cause of the crash, and following up on leads and tips, it has not uncovered information that crime was involved. </P>

<P> <P>"Whether we are talking about the crew members or the passengers on any leg of the flight while in the United States, we have not so far developed any information that would lead us to believe that a criminal or terrorist act caused the plane to go down," said FBI spokesman Joseph A. Valiquette. "There are some anomalies and unanswered questions we are pursuing, but our position remains, as it has been, that we don't have any evidence of a crime." </P>

<P> <P>Valiquette said one anomaly is that the passengers on the flight included dozens of Egyptian military officials, which he said "poses questions for investigators as to whether they could have been a special target of someone or transporting something they shouldn't have been transporting." </P>

<P> <P>Sources said, however, that none of the military officers apparently carried any personal firearms aboard the plane. </P>

<b>Saturday November 13 6:24 PM ET</b>

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<b><font size=5>Pilots Mystified By EgyptAir Crash</b></font>

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<i>By TAREK EL-TABLAWY Associated Press Writer </i>

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NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - Experienced pilots are mystified by

flight recorder data they say shows that EgyptAir Flight 990 was

deliberately put into a dive, saying whatever was done in the

cockpit was not a standard emergency measure.

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One veteran former 767 pilot said the actions indicated by the tape were consistent with

what someone in the cockpit would do if they deliberately wanted to crash the plane.

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Another, Barry Schiff, a former TWA 767 pilot from Los Angeles and currently an aviation

accident investigator, said the data shows that some human factor was responsible rather

than some system failure.

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``I racked my brain and I can't think of any emergency that would lead to these maneuvers,''

said Schiff.

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National Transportation Safety Board officials continue to focus on all possible causes for

the crash that killed 217, including mechanical problems. Officials say they are not leaning

toward any specfic theory. They said Saturday that investigators would travel to Seattle this

week to use a Boeing 767 flight simulator.

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NTSB investigator Greg Phillips said information from Flight 990's flight data recorder would

be entered into the simulator to study how the airplane would react.

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Preliminary data released Friday by the NTSB showed that the plane was put into a dive so

steep and fast that passengers would briefly have been rendered weightless. And both

engines were shut off before the aircraft climbed briefly out of its dive and then turned and

plunged into the ocean.

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NTSB chairman James Hall said the data raised many questions and offered no conclusions

on what caused the plane to crash two weeks ago on a flight from New York to Cairo.

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Investigators hope the plane's cockpit voice recorder will answer the questions raised by the

data recorder's information.

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``It's vital that we get the cockpit voice recorder,'' Phillips said Saturday. ``We certainly

need every piece of information we can get.''

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Two underwater robots were back at work scouring the ocean floor all day Saturday

searching for the voice recorder amid the plane's wreckage. Navy technicians manipulating

the robots have heard the pinging signal of the voice recorder's locator beacon, but they had

been unable to see the orange box amid the silt and piles of debris.

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Navy Rear Adm. William Sutton said the ``umbilical cord'' on one of the robots was

damaged Saturday, but it was repaired and the vessel returned to the search.

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Hall said Saturday that calm seas had given searchers a ``48-hour window of opportunity,''

but he said those conditions would end soon. Bad weather has forced investigators to

temporarily suspend the search in the past.

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``That window is likely to close (Sunday) evening,'' he said.

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One veteran pilot said the actions taken on the Boeing 767, such as shutting off the engines,

seemed to be the exact opposite of what would be done by someone who was trying to save

the airplane.

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``Someone on that airplane was trying to make that airplane crash and they succeeded,'' said

the aviator, a former United Airlines pilot with 7,000 hours piloting 767s, who spoke to The

Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

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The pilots suggested that the wild roller coaster maneuvers could be evidence of a struggle

for the controls, perhaps during a skyjacking or a suicide attempt.

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``Those are contrary moves with contrary motives indicative of a struggle in the cockpit,''

said Schiff.

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But they noted that while anyone could put the plane into a dive, only someone who had

knowledge of the cockpit layout on a commercial airliner would be able to figure out how to

shut down the engines.

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The flight data also showed the plane's elevators - the flaps on the plane's tail that bend

down or up to raise or lift the plane's nose - were uneven during the descent, indicating a

major problem.

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The elevators are designed to operate in unison. Investigators are trying to determine if the

elevator split was caused by the plane's breakup, a jamming problem in one of the elevators,

crew panic, or even a struggle for control by two people in the cockpit.

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In 1997 in Southeast Asia, a SilkAir Boeing 737 crashed on route to Jakarta from

Singapore, killing all 104 people on board. The pilot was described as having experienced

personal problems and apparently manually set the plane to crash

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Barry Trotter, a former senior investigator with the NTSB and commercial airline pilot, said

that while a pilot might turn off an engine if there was a fire, it would be highly improbable for

both engines to be on fire at the same time.

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And there is no indication in the information released so far that there was any fire on board

the aircraft.

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``The question is why they initiated the descent from the very beginning,'' said Trotter. A

sudden decompression or fire would set off the master warning in the cockpit. However, the

alarm apparently was triggered not at the beginning of the dive, when it could have signaled a

reason for the sudden descent, but midway through it when the plane reached a velocity

close to the speed of sound.

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In addition, the cockpit crew never communicated with air traffic controllers to report any

problem.

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In the case of Flight 990, the pilot and co-pilot both underwent routine physical and

psychological checkups within the past five months, the airline's chairman said Saturday.

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Pilot Ahmed el-Habashy and co-pilot Adel Anwar were pronounced fit after their exams,

said Mohammed Fahim Rayan. El-Habashy was examined 10 days before the Oct. 31 crash

and Anwar less than five months before.