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| UPDATE: FINAL WORDS | |
 November 19, 1999 
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MARGARET WARNER: National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim
Hall held a news conference today to decry what he called the virtual
cyclone of speculation in recent days about the status of the EgyptAir
probe. He reminded reporters that the Egyptian government had asked
the NTSB to lead the investigation, and that international civil aviation
rules require crash investigators, if they come to suspect unlawful
interference was involved, to inform law enforcement of that. JAMES HALL: On Monday, I met with FBI Director Louis Freeh to inform him that this accident might-- and again, I emphasize the word "might"-- be the result of a deliberate act. We also informed our Egyptian partners in this investigation. However, under our procedures, as spelled out in our accident... aviation accident investigation manual, and I quote from those procedures, "in obvious cases of sabotage, murder, or other crimes, the criminal investigation will take precedence over the National Transportation Safety Board investigation." After consultations among the Egyptian investigators and authorities, the Safety Board, and the FBI, we all agreed that more work needed to be done before we reached the threshold of asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation to take the leadership of this investigation. And as I have been explaining to you this week, that work continues. Both the NTSB and the FBI's ongoing investigations continue to move forward. I deeply regret that some unidentified sources have led some in the news media to speculate on undocumented information, particularly from one of the most sensitive investigative tools at our disposal, the cockpit voice recorder. This has caused pain for the families. It has not promoted the interest of aviation safety, and has placed misinformation in the public realm, and done disservice to the long-standing friendship between the peoples of the United States of America and Egypt. Documenting the cockpit voice recorder in any crash investigation is a painstaking process. And I stated earlier, this is compounded, in this case, by the fact that the cockpit voice recorder is almost entirely in Arabic. I would hope that the public would agree that the Safety Board has been open with this investigation, releasing factual information as it becomes available. Since the aircraft wreckage remains at the bottom of the ocean, the factual information has, by necessity, been limited to radar data and flight data recorder information. We have not released specific information from the cockpit voice recorder and any so-called verbatim information you have heard about; that recorder is unauthorized second, third, or fourth hand; and as we have seen in some of the newspapers, headlines with information that is just flat wrong. No one wants to get to the bottom of this mystery
quicker than those investigating this accident, both here and in Egypt.
But we won't get there on a road paved with leaks, suppositions, speculation,
and spin. That road does not lead to the truth, and the truth is what
both the American people and the Egyptian people seek. MARGARET WARNER: For more 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." Welcome back, Pat. PAT MILTON, Associated Press: Thank you. MARGARET WARNER: Why did Chairman Hall did side to hold this news conference
today? PAT MILTON: Well, I think that he was trying to clear up any misconceptions
in the public and any confusion that the NTSB was ready to hand off
this investigation to the FBI. He had had a news conference earlier
in the week where he said that there was a suspicious nature -- that
they found no mechanical reason and no weather-related reason for this
crash. And I think that what he was trying to point out today is that
the NTSB has a duty, if a suspicious nature of this crash occurs, that
they have to tell the FBI what is going on, and they have to inform
the public. And although they were not ready to make a decision... and
we know that now...they weren't ready to hand it over, they thought
more analysis needed to be done. And of course the Egyptian government
objected and they came in and wanted to review it on their own which
was readily accepted. And I think that's where they stand now. They've
dug in and they're analyzing the cockpit voice recorder, the flight
data recorder, the radar, they're trying to overlay it and correlate
it and try to reach a determination as to what happened, a determination
as to what was said. As Chairman Hall pointed out, it's very difficult
given that it's in the Arabic language. MARGARET WARNER: He also on several occasions took real aim at stories
that had been in the press, he said both here and in Egypt, all kinds
of speculation about the cause. And he said some of the information
that's been put out here is flat wrong. Do you know what he's referring
to? PAT MILTON: Well, I think that it's important that he do his job, and
that's exactly what Chairman Hall is doing. It's important to bring
to the public information that is wrong and information that investigators
perhaps have told reporters or information that was originally pointed
out by investigators and thought to be correct and now it turns out
through further analysis and further review, that it was incorrect,
that was his duty. But I think that in my experience, from what I've
seen, I think the reporting on this crash has been extraordinarily restrained,
especially when you look at TWA Flight 800 and you look at the eyewitnesses
and the extraordinary things that they had to say about what they reported
in the sky. And then you look at all of the conspirators that came out
in that crash in saying that the FBI and our government was covering
up. So there was a lot of stories and comments and innuendo on the Internet
and in news conferences that the public had that reporters reported
on in that crash. MARGARET WARNER: But in this one of course there have been front page
stories from the New York Times on down focusing and saying
investigators were focusing on the fact this may well have been a deliberate
act caused by this relief pilot, this Captain El-Batouty. And some of
the phrases attributed to him -- Reuters and AP are now both running
stories today saying -- quoting U.S. Government officials saying that
phrase "I made my decision now" no longer, based on careful
review, does seem to be on the tape. Can you confirm that? PAT MILTON: Well, I really can't firm that. You know, I can just say
that obviously it's the duty of a reporter to ask questions and then
to responsibly report what they know…especially after checking
out their sources or the investigator's credentials that they're dealing
with. And, as I say, I think I know from my reporting and the Associated
Press's reporting and the other news outlets I know of, have done an
extraordinary job here. MARGARET WARNER: Now on the question of who is going to run this probe,
do you get the feeling...or from your reporting, do you think that the
NTSB is holding back transferring this... in other words because of
Egyptian sensitivities, are they delaying what otherwise they would
do, or do they genuinely have doubt as to whether it's time yet to transfer
it? PAT MILTON: I think from the investigators that I talked to both at
FBI and at NTSB and the FAA, for that matter, I think that there is
a genuine concern that they want to correctly interpret what was being
said. And I think that's why they painstakingly are going over everything.
They want to ensure when this, if it is handed over to the FBI to begin
a criminal investigation, that it is the correct thing, that this is
what happened. MARGARET WARNER: Is there...is not turning it over to the FBI, keeping
the FBI from doing anything that otherwise it would be doing? I mean,
I know he said that the FBI has been involved from the start anyway,
but is there a practical effect in not letting the FBI lead it at this
time? PAT MILTON: No. The FBI has very quietly in this case but very aggressively
been investigating this. You know, they've done a number of interviews,
hundreds of them, of airport workers, maintenance workers, passengers
that were on previous legs. They're looking into the background of passengers
that were on this flight and background of crew members. And the only
thing that they are restrained from right now is actually going into
Cairo and conducting a criminal investigation. But you know there's
a lot of work that has to be decided here before that happens. The NTSB
has to decide yes, indeed, this is a criminal investigation that we
need and then hand that over to the FBI. And then the FBI has to ask
permission, the approval of the Cairo...of the Egyptian government,
to go to Cairo and interview what they would have to do, maintenance
workers there and family members of the crew. If it turns out that this
person that they are looking at now, the possibility that this relief
co-pilot may have been involved, they're going to want to look at his
telephone records and bank statements and insurance forms, to see, you
know, what was a motive, and was there any involvement, any group involvement
or was he acting alone? MARGARET WARNER: Thanks, Pat, very much. We have to leave it there.
Thank you. PAT MILTON: Thank you. |
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