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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 August 2000 Issue No. 496 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 August 2000 Issue No. 496
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Crash probe far from over
By Amira Ibrahim
Nine months after the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the eastern coast of the United States, killing all 217 people on board, the probe has been suspended temporarily, bringing to the surface the persistent disagreements between Egyptians and Americans.
Fahim Rayan 
The freeze came following a request by the Egyptian investigating team that the possibility of a mechanical malfunction involving the elevators be investigated. The investigation was put on hold until US officials respond to the Egyptian request and to Egypt's objections to a report released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) two weeks ago.
In the meantime, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered operators of Boeing 767 aircraft to inspect the controls of the elevators mechanism that Egyptian officials believe may be linked to last year's EgyptAir crash.
The FAA's order, which gave operators 30 days to make inspections, added fuel to the dispute about what happened aboard Flight 990.
EgyptAir officials hailed the FAA advice as bolstering their argument that faulty elevators may have forced the aircraft into a fatal dive, rather than a suicidal co-pilot.
"We are 99 per cent sure that there was something [wrong] in the elevator system," Fahim Rayan, EgyptAir chairman, told a news conference last week. He stressed that EgyptAir would not be criticised for the mechanical problem because the airline had carried out regular checks on its pilots and had conducted routine maintenance for the aircraft.
FAA officials maintain that the requested safety inspections have no connection to the crash but stem from an elevator problem found on a 767 on the ground. And Boeing has said that its recommendation for stepped-up inspection of the elevator mechanism is not related to the EgyptAir investigation. "The 767 was designed to land safely even with a dual failure of elevator linkages," stated a Boeing official.
But Shaker Kelada, vice president for safety at EgyptAir and a member of the crash investigation team, argued that metallurgical analysis of the wreckage of the plane showed that rivets in the control system of the aircraft's elevators were sheared in opposite directions, indicating a possible jam of the controls that could have sent the plane into a dive.
On releasing the NTSB report two weeks ago, chairman Jim Hall said there were "no unresolved safety issues" in the crash -- ruling out a mechanical failure -- although the safety board has not yet issued its final report on the probable cause.
At the same news conference, Mohsen El-Messiri, head of the Egyptian group assisting in the investigation, said questions remain about the elevator control system on the 767.
A meeting took place in Washington last Thursday between the Egyptian and American sides to discuss some of the issues that the Egyptian side requested.
"The Egyptian side has demands which must be seen through, such as radar and air traffic control information... There are mechanical questions about the hydraulic bell cranks and elevators," Kelada stated. Both sides apparently failed to reach an agreement over the Egyptian demands, leading to a halt in the investigation. The Egyptian team has since returned home for a review.
According to Kelada, the NTSB chairman will study the Egyptian demands within two weeks. "While we expected the Boeing bulletin to force the NTSB to look again at a possible mechanical explanation of the crash, the NTSB appears to maintain its position that the crash presented no unresolved safety issue and ignores the Egyptian point of view," an EgyptAir source told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"Whereas Boeing has said that it had never received any reports of two actuators failing in flight, earlier this summer, a 767 operator reported a dual actuator failure after a ground inspection," stated the source. "Both US and Egyptian investigators looking into the crash of Flight 990 were aware of the failure which occurred on an AeroMexico jet," he added.
In June, Abdel-Fattah Kato, chairman of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority, wrote a four-page letter to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey in which he mentioned the AeroMexico incident.
"If the investigation does not cover the issues we asked for, we will not consider it complete," the source said.
A group of EgyptAir experts reached the conclusion that a possible failure or jam of power control units would have caused the aircraft to pitch downwards.
"The rivets on two of the three bell cranks in the right elevator were sheared in a direction that would force the elevator down. The rivets on the other bell crank were sheared in the opposite direction. It is a pattern consistent with a possible failure of control units," stated a report released last week by the Egyptian Pilots Association.
"The FAA order to inspect the Boeing elevator control system is a step in the right direction. But it's not everything," Walid Murad, the association chief, told the Weekly.
"There are other demands by Egyptian investigators to have the radar photos released and to interview two Jordanian and German pilots who saw a shooting fireball near the crash site," Murad said. "Even if the Boeing inspection showed that there was a mechanical failure with the elevators, investigators are asked to answer other questions that remain unresolved."
Related stories:
Truth sought
Finding the 'truth' of Flight 990 17 - 23 August 2000
A non-American cause 17 - 23 August 2000Related sites:
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
Egypt Air
