CRIMINAL INQUIRY DELAYED
November 17, 1999

The Egyptian government and U.S. officials are in disagreement over what could have caused the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. Pat Milton of the Associated Press and Mamoun Fandy, professor of Middle East Politics at Georgetown, discuss the possibilities and the politics behind the investigation.

Nov. 16, 1999: How should the NTSB continue with the investigation? Nov. 16, 1999: NTSB to remain on the EgyptAir 990 probe. Nov. 15, 1999 Experts dicuss how the EgyptAir investigation should proceed. Nov. 10, 1999 The flight data recorder details the last moments of EgyptAir Flight 990. Nov. 2, 1999 The dangers of search and recovery in the EgyptAir crash Nov. 1, 1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes into the Atlantic.   EgyptAir National Transportation Safety Board Aviation Safety Network Federal Aviation Administration	GWEN IFILL: As investigators try to decipher information in the recorders recovered from the wreckage of EgyptAir 990, they appear to be focusing on human action, not mechanical problems. National Transportation Safety Board officials have suggested they will turn the investigation over to the FBI, treating it not as an accident, but as a crime. JIM HALL, Chairman, NTSB: Based on the evidence we have seen thus far-- the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, radar data, and small bits of wreckage that have been recovered-- we have found so far no sign of a mechanical or weather-related event that could have caused this accident.
	Piecing together the last moments
	GWEN IFILL: Several press accounts attributed to investigators piecing together the last 90 seconds of the doomed flight have laid out this theoretical sequence of events: Shortly after the plane reached 33,000 feet, a cockpit door opened and closed. This suggested Pilot Ahmed Al-Habashi left. A short time later, another voice-- investigators say it belonged to relief pilot Gameel Al-Battouti-- was heard saying a religious Arabic phrase. Rough translation: "I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands." Then the Boeing 767's autopilot was shut off. The plane then began a very high speed dive, dropping several thousand feet. After the plane began the dive, the pilot reentered the cabin, asking, in Arabic, "What's going on?" About 25 seconds later, the plane's engines were shut off. Also, its left and right elevators, the rear wing flaps that direct the plane up or down, were moved in opposite directions; they usually operate in tandem. Investigators say this suggests the pilots were struggling over the controls. After rising to 24,000 feet, the plane apparently stalled, then crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. In Egypt, government officials objected to the FBI taking over the investigation. U.S. officials, they argued, are moving too quickly to lay the blame on employees of the government-owned airline. And a nephew of the relief pilot now at the center of the investigation said his uncle had no reason to commit suicide. WALID EL-BATOUTY, Nephew of Relief Pilot: I think that people are jumping into things and trying to make another thing to divert the accusation from another big company. That's our feeling over here. My uncle has to come back because he had medicine for his daughter, which he had his life, and he adored that little girl, ten years old. We are the ones who need answers.
	Egypt objects to the FBI
	GWEN IFILL: Egyptian officials were headed to Washington today to review the flight recorder tapes for themselves. For the latest on EgyptAir, we're joined by Pat Milton, a correspondent for the Associated Press who is covering the crash investigation-- she is also the author of "In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800"-- and Mamoun Fandy, Professor of Middle East Politics at Georgetown University, and executive director of the Council on Egyptian-American Relations, which seeks to promote better understanding between the two countries. Pat Milton, you reported today that, according to a single government official, that there was a struggle in the cockpit, that when the pilot entered, saw the co-pilot doing whatever he was doing, that he said, "pull with me, help me, pull with me," to try to pull the plane back up. Can you give us any more detail about what may have actually happened in that cockpit? PAT MILTON, Associated Press: Well, that's exactly right. Investigators have been able to synchronize the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, and this is how they're getting a preliminary picture as to just what happened inside that cockpit. We know that the pilot left, for whatever reason, to go to the men's room, after this relief pilot had taken over. The relief pilot was not supposed to take over for another hour or so, and he had come in and asked the co-pilot and the pilot if it was okay if he flew. There was no argument, no disagreement, and he was given the controls of the co-pilot. After the pilot came back in and the plane was in a dive, he jumped into the seat and we know that there was a struggle, and we know that because, as you mentioned, the elevators were in opposite directions, showing us that one was pushing while the other was pulling. We know from investigators, because they've listened to the dialogue on the cockpit voice recorder, that the pilot was struggling desperately to get that plane afloat and was yelling to the co-pilot to help him.
	Interpreting the religious utterance
	GWEN IFILL: How much significance should be attributed to this apparently religious utterance? PAT MILTON: Well, I think it's mostly the placement of the religious utterance that they're looking at, and I know they're trying for interpretation and meaning to what this meant, given the cultural differences. But the prayer was uttered just before the autopilot was disengaged, and that was significant because there was no reason that they know of that the plane should have been disengaged and should have gone into a dive. In the first beginning days of this, they had thought, well, maybe there was a problem with the thrust reverser, maybe there was a decompression problem. There was very precise problems why a pilot would put a plane into a dive. GWEN IFILL: Mr. Fandy, what are the possible meanings for the words, for this phrase that was uttered by the co-pilot, we think? MAMOUN FANDY, Georgetown University: I think, first of all, this is something that one cannot say... comment on without hearing it because I've read two statements, one that I put my fate in the hands of God and the second is that pronouncing the ash-Shahadah, which is the first article of Islamic faith, basically there is only one God and Muhammad is his messenger. So these are things that are said in different circumstances. I mean the ash-Shahadah itself basically when somebody is at a moment of distress and seeking God's help, then you pronounce that, also, it is said at time of death, when somebody wants to die in the faith of Islam itself, you pronounce the ash-Shahadah basically repeating that there's only one God and Muhammad is his messenger. GWEN IFILL: So he could have been saying this because he was struggling to keep the plane upright, or he could have been saying it because he was on the point of death? MAMOUN FANDY: That's absolutely right. I mean it could be just seeking God's help, to help him out, out of this situation or because somebody felt an eminent death and that he wants to die as a Muslim within the confines of the faith... GWEN IFILL: There has been much discussion about that very point, which was that a devout Muslim would not commit suicide. How unusual would that be? MAMOUN FANDY: It's absolutely unusual. Within the faith itself, suicide is something that's not sanctioned by Islam. And the moment you commit suicide, are you outside the bounds of the faith itself. So I think it is highly unlikely and also given the culture of Egypt itself, if you look at statistics, I mean the suicide rate in Egypt is something that's just... does not come very near to any western country. It's something that's just culturally not condoned whatsoever. GWEN IFILL: Pat Milton, there's been so much focus now on this relief co-pilot. What would a relief pilot have been doing there? And under what... how unusual would it have been for him to come in and take over the controls? PAT MILTON: Well, you know, this was a lengthy flight. It was 11 hours, and they had a co-pilot and a pilot relief that were in the cabin supposedly sleeping and relaxing and would have been taking over about two hours later than this man did. I don't know how unusual it would be. The experts told me that he shouldn't have come in there at that time, but there didn't seem to be a problem. I think that there were also two other pilots that were in there, and our investigators have told us, too, that they're questioning now whether, when the plane was in a dive, whether the other pilots did rush to the cock pit-- cockpit door and also ask what was going on.
	A great deal at stake
	GWEN IFILL: Was there any evidence... is there any evidence to support the notion which is popular among Egyptian officials, that U.S. investigators are just ruling out mechanical failure too quickly? PAT MILTON: Well, I think the National Transportation Safety Board are experts at aviation, and they wouldn't be looking to turn over something to the FBI unless they had a clear picture that there was a suspect, suspicious nature of this. You know, they've looked at everything. They know what happens with airplanes and they've looked at everything, they've looked at the flight data recorder and they said, as Jim Hall, the chairman said, "there is absolutely no reason that they see that this plane mechanically should have gone into a dive and crashed." GWEN IFILL: Mr. Fandy, unlike American-owned airlines, EgyptAir is a government-owned airline. How much is at stake for the government of Egypt as this investigation continues? MAMOUN FANDY: I think there is a great deal at stake. But I am very, very surprised, given the strategic cooperation between Egypt and the United States and the level of contact between the FBI and the Egyptians and all of that -- I'm very surprised that, from what I heard because there is a great deal of communication between the Egyptian government. But it is not known, it's not publicly known; it's mostly under the table. But the Egyptians would like to have... the United States would take the lead in this investigation, they would follow, they will provide resources, they will provide translators and other things. GWEN IFILL: In fact Egypt asked the United States to take the lead in this investigation. MAMOUN FANDY: Absolutely. Absolutely. There's a very high level of cooperation between Egypt and the United States that is not known very much to even the Egyptians, the Egyptian public themselves, and they don't want that to be really something as part of a carnival media thing. They like to have the investigation follow just the technical side of things and go methodically and very slowly because the political price could be very high back home. GWEN IFILL: And there's a potentially legal cost, as well. MAMOUN FANDY: Certainly, because it's a government-owned thing, and the moment we move the whole investigation from the Safety Board to the FBI, we are moving into a criminal investigation with a great deal of ramifications. GWEN IFILL: Pat Milton, how is it that the FBI is responsible for a foreign carrier like this? Is it just because Egypt asked the FBI to get involved, or the NTSB to get involved? How is it that the U.S. is taking the lead in this at all? PAT MILTON: Well, I think you have to remember that three quarters of the people on this airplane were Americans, and the FBI has jurisdiction, a crime aboard an aircraft and also description of an aircraft if one American was on that plane, whether it was a foreign carrier or not and whether it was flying overseas or flying domestically. I think, that you know, the FBI obviously, no one has reached any conclusions here. They're looking to investigate it because the NTSB has told them that they have a suspicious scenario here. That's why the FBI was called in by NTSB, who is in charge of investigating accidents in this country. The FBI necessarily needs the Egypt government's approval to go to their country and interview, whether it's airport employees or friends and relatives of the crew members. They need the approval of the host country to go in and talk to them. So they're looking to keep to what Egypt is looking for now. GWEN IFILL: Ms. Milton, thank you very much, and Mr. Fandy, as well. MAMOUN FANDY: Thank you.