EGYPTIAN PLANE CRASHES

October 31, 1999
		EgyptAir flight 990, a Boeing 767, crashed into the sea near Nantucket Island, Massachusetts early Sunday morning. The flight with 217 people on board took off from New York City bound for Cairo. -- Posted 8:00pm ET

Oct. 26, 1999: Payne Stewart's plane crashes in South Dakota July 19, 1999: John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane crashes off Martha's Vineyard Sept. 7, 1998: The investigation of the SwissAir crash May 11, 1998: The FAA orders inspections of 737s   EgyptAir National Transportation Safety Board U.S Embassy Cairo John F. Kennedy International Airport Aviation Safety Network Federal Aviation Administration Federal Bureau of Investigation U.S. Coast Guard American Red Cross

Coast Guard, state and local authorities continue to hold out hope they may find survivors. So far only one body has been officially recovered. "This is still a search and rescue case," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Richard M. Larrabee told reporters this afternoon. "We are not shifting this to a search and recovery effort. We are not at that point yet." The search was focused in a 36-square-mile area about 60 miles south of Nantucket, Coast Guard officials said at midday. "The initial report was we had found seats, seat cushions, the flotation devices on the aircraft, life rafts and some other small parts that are not identifiable," Larrabee said. According to officials in both the U.S. and Egypt, the plane was at an altitude of 33,000 feet. Initial radar reports indicate the plane plummeted 13,900 feet in 24 seconds before dropping off radar completely. EgyptAir officials said the airliner gave a distress call before contact was lost. "Contact with the plane was cut suddenly which indicates that something happened suddenly," Ibrahim el-Dimeiri, Egypt's minister of transport, communications and civil aviation, said in Cairo. el-Dimeiri told reporters there were 62 Egyptians and 129 Americans on the flight, some passengers from Sudan, Syria and Chile and some other nationalities. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the flight originated in Los Angeles. It traveled first to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York before leaving at 1:19am EST for Cairo. The incident occurred some 40 minutes into the flight. At the time of the crash, weather at Nantucket was clear with nine miles of visibility and wind of nine mph, the National Weather Service said. FBI and National Transportation Safety Board investigators say they have not found any evidence of what brought the plan down. "Although there is no indication of criminal activity at this time, we will be working with the NTSB if information develops," FBI Special Officer Barry Mawn told an afternoon press conference. The Navy is preparing to send the USS Grapple to the site, according to an official in Washington. The Grapple, based at Little Creek, VA., is a search and rescue vessel that participated in the recovery of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane off Martha's Vineyard this summer and TWA Flight 800 in 1996. Both EgyptAir officials and the Red Cross were working to help families and friends in New York and Cairo.