1.21.2000 00:34:17
U.S. officials finish inspecting EgyptAir plane
But release of a final report on the cause on the crash may depend on diplomatic negotiations with Egypt as much as the investigators' workload..

By PETER B. LORD
Journal Staff Writer

Federal crash investigators finished inspecting the wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990 at the Davisville Pier this week and returned to Washington with no information that disputes findings announced weeks ago -- that there were no mechanical problems with the plane.

``Everything is still open,'' insisted Keith Holloway, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. ``To say we haven't found anything wrong mechanically doesn't mean we won't find something.''

But he confirmed investigators are done with the wreckage and are back in Washington writing their reports. There are no plans to reconstruct the plane, he said, a practice undertaken when investigators can't figure out the cause for a crash.

The failure to find any new evidence leaves one prevailing theory for the cause of the crash off Nantucket of EgyptAir's Boeing 767 that killed 217 people on Oct. 31.

The jet's flight data recorder clearly showed, according to the NTSB, that someone turned off the autopilot, pointed the plane in a nose-down position, and then cut off the engines.

During the dive, someone in the pilot's seat apparently tried to pull the plane up while someone in the copilot's seat was continuing to aim it down, according to evidence from flight data recorders.

``They aren't releasing anything new, because there is nothing new,'' observed Barry Schiff, a veteran TWA pilot and instructor for Boeing 767's who now serves as an aviation safety consultant.

``Someone was pushing that airplane into the water,'' Schiff said. ``There is no other reason to turn the engines off.''

If this were a domestic airline, Schiff speculated final reports on the crash would be completed in a few months.

But in this case, the Egyptian government, as well as families of the flight crew and officials at EgyptAir have angrily objected to speculation about a suicide crash.

Release of a final crash report probably will depend more on diplomatic negotiations with Egypt than the workload at the NTSB, Schiff said.

The Rhode Island Medical Examiner's office reported yesterday that it is continuing its efforts to identify remains of passengers and crew.

A forensic anthropologist, an odontologist (an expert in the structure of teeth) and experts from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology are assisting the local staff, a spokeswoman said. They are using such techniques as DNA analysis to make identifications.

Following its normal practices, the NTSB is conducting this investigation in cooperation with representatives from EgyptAir, Boeing, and the FBI.

The investigators are divided into groups chaired by NTSB investigators. The groups focus on parts of the problem, such as human performance, radar data, the flight data recorder, witness statements and power plant.

If it were established that the crash resulted from a criminal act, the NTSB would transfer the case to the FBI. Many suspected the agency would do so within days after the crash, but it didn't.

Now, each group is expected to prepare a report of its findings. The reports will be placed in a public docket. Often the safety board will have a public hearing on an accident. Sometimes it simply releases its findings.

Soon after the accident, government officials ``leaked'' reports of conversations they believed were picked up by the cockpit voice recorder used on EgyptAir 990. Various sources speculated about a prayer they thought they heard on the recorder, a prayer supposedly voiced by the copilot before he instigated the crash. When Egyptians complained, the ``leaks'' stopped.

By law, the NTSB is forbidden to release audio tapes of cockpit voice recordings. It can release transcripts when it holds its hearings or issues other factual reports.

Secrecy of the audio tapes was demanded by pilots when the cockpit voice recorders were first proposed some 20 years ago as a safety device.

``The airline pilots were absolutely adamant about voice recorders,'' Schiff said. ``They were concerned about people listening to their personal and private comments. As it is, they can erase the tapes at the end of each flight. Their only purpose is those cases when no one survives.''

Earlier this week NTSB chairman Jim Hall announced that he was dismayed to learn that Dateline NBC had played portions of audio from the cockpit voice recorder Monday night that was in use when an American Airlines flight crashed near Cali, Colombia, on Dec. 20, 1995.

Four passengers survived but 152 other passengers and 8 crewmembers were killed.

``The use of such a recording -- however it was obtained -- for such a purpose is inappropriate,'' Hall said. ``It does nothing to advance the cause of aviation safety, and only serves to sensationalize a tragedy. It is imperative that the privacy of these recordings be preserved as dictated by law.''

Dateline used the audio to illustrate a story about how language problems, especially in foreign countries, are contributing to near collisions for commercial airlines.

It maintained the recording showed that miscommunication between the American pilot and Colombian air controller contributed to the crash.

The NTSB assisted in the investigation, which is still open.