 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Weather hampers search
By Thomas GorguissianDeteriorating weather, storms, high winds and seas of eight to 10 feet and building forced the US Navy vessel Mohawk and its companion Whiting to leave the site of the EgyptAir Flight 990 disaster and seek shelter in Newport. That same day, investigators of the tragic crash were warning victims' relatives there was little hope of finding intact bodies. This was last Tuesday, two days after the crash that killed 217 people.
After almost 48 hours, the Coast Guard had abandoned its search for survivors. By early Wednesday only one body had been recovered. Searchers also found small pieces of wreckage, personal items and a piece of the aircraft large enough to require a crane to remove it from the water. The USS Grapple, a sonar-equipped Navy ship, was heading to the site to try to recover the two black boxes -- the flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder -- which are expected to provide information about the cause of the crash, and determine whether it was a mechanical failure, human error, or sabotage.
"There is no indication of any criminal activity at this time" -- FBI official Barry Mawn's initial response to the disaster has since been repeated many times, not least by President Bill Clinton, who told reporters: "We have no evidence of [foul play] at this time, and I think it's better if people draw no conclusions until we know something."
Meanwhile, as many as 500 FBI agents, from Los Angeles, New York and Boston, have been assigned to what was described as a "preliminary investigation" of EgyptAir Flight 990, which began its final trip in Los Angeles, stopped in New York, and then crashed 60 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Although the disaster took place in international waters, the US "has been asked by the Egyptian government, as conveyed by the ambassador to the United States... to take the lead in this investigation," according to Jim Hall, head of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
It has been reported that the investigators who will eventually determine the cause of this latest crash already have some clues, but to make a conclusion or a complete assessment of the tragedy may need weeks or months.
"This will be a long investigation," NTSB's Chairman Hall said. "We will continue to cooperate closely with the government of Egypt and with all appropriate authorities as the investigation develops."
The number of people involved in the search is between 500 and 1,000, and their task is hampered, Hall pointed out, by the fact that they are searching in water up to 250 feet deep, twice the depth of the earlier, TWA tragedy.
The EgyptAir plane involved in the crash was assembled, according to press accounts, in September 1989 at Boeing's Everett plane factory in Washington state. It was the 282nd 767 to be assembled. Just two weeks later the 283rd 767 rolled off the assembly line. Built for Austria's Lauda Air, it crashed in Thailand on 26 May,1991, killing 223.
A Boeing spokesman told AP that the company knew of nothing to indicate that the two crashes might be connected, but added Boeing intended to look "at every possible scenario".
