Investigation of plane crashes egyptair flight 990. The most mysterious plane crashes in history

40°20′50″ s. sh. 69°45′24″ W  / 40.34722° N sh. 69.75667° W e. / 40.34722; -69.75667 (G) (O)Coordinates: 40°20′50″ N sh. 69°45′24″ W  / 40.34722° N sh. 69.75667° W e. / 40.34722; -69.75667(G)(O)

The dead plane 7 years before the crash

Boeing 767-366ER

Los Angeles, USA

John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, USA

Cairo, Egypt

Boeing 767 crash in the Atlantic- a severe plane crash that occurred on October 31, 1999. An EgyptAir Boeing 767-366ER, operating flight MSR990 on the Los Angeles-Cairo route with an intermediate stop in New York, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean 97 km south of Nantucket Island (USA). All 217 people on board were killed.

• 1 Information about flight 990
  • 1.1 Aircraft
  • 1.2 Crew
  • 1.3 Passengers
• 2 Disaster
• 3 Investigation
• 4 Cultural aspects
• 5 See also
• 6 Links

Flight 990 details

Airplane

Flight MSR990 that day was operated by a Boeing 767-366ER (registration number SU-GAP, serial number 24542, serial number 282, name Tuthmosis III). The airliner was released in 1989 (the first flight was made on September 15). On September 26 of the same year, it was transferred to EgyptAir. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW4060 turbojet engines. The aircraft was the 282nd Boeing 767 built. On the day of the crash, it completed 7,556 take-off and landing cycles and flew 33,219 hours.

Crew

• The aircraft commander (FAC) is 57-year-old Ahmed El-Habashi (Eng. Ahmed El-Habashi). Veteran pilot with EgyptAir for 36 years. Piloted Boeing 707 and Boeing 737-200 aircraft. On March 9, 1999, he became the commander of the Boeing 767. He flew 14384 hours, 6356 of them on the Boeing 767.
• The co-pilot is 36-year-old Adel Anwar.
• Reserve FAC - 52-year-old Raouf Nureldin (born Raouf Noureldin).
• The reserve co-pilot is 59-year-old Gameel Al-Batouti. Experienced pilot, worked for EgyptAir for 12 years. flew a Boeing 737-200 as co-pilot. On June 19, 1999, he became the co-pilot of the Boeing 767. He flew 12538 hours, 5191 of them on the Boeing 767.

In addition to the main and reserve crews, on board was the chief pilot of the airline EgyptAir - PIC Hatem Rushdy (Eng. Hatem Rushdy).

9 flight attendants worked in the cabin of the aircraft.

Passengers

There were 203 passengers from seven countries on board. 54 US passengers, many of them elderly, were on the Grand Circle tour. Of the 203 passengers in Los Angeles, only 32 boarded Flight 990, the rest boarded in New York. Passengers included 4 non-commercial EgyptAir crew members and 33 Egyptian officers returning from the exercise: two Brigadier Generals, a Colonel, a Major and four Egyptian Air Force officers.

Catastrophe

EgyptAir flight 990 took off from New York Airport. John F. Kennedy at 01:19 EST (06:19 UTC). 01:44 the plane took the height of 4500 meters. 01:50 the crew commander Ahmed El-Khabashi went to the restroom, after 30 seconds the co-pilot Gamil El-Batuti whispered: “Tawkalt ala Allah” (“I rely on God”). He said this phrase seven times. After another 3 seconds, the throttles of both engines were reduced to a minimum and the aircraft went into a dive. Returning to the cockpit, the PIC asked the co-pilot: “What is going on? What's going on?" but he kept repeating, "I rely on God." The commander again asked the co-pilot: “What is this? What is this? Did you turn off the engines? He quickly sat at the helm and ordered Batuti: "Pull after me." The PIC began to climb the aircraft, but the co-pilot continued to pull the yoke down. 01:52 AM EST Flight MSR990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean 97 kilometers from Nantucket Island. A few seconds before the plane fell into the water, the left engine came off. All 217 people died.

Investigation

Since the crash occurred in neutral waters, the responsibility for what happened fell on the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation (ECAA), as follows from Appendix 13 (Annex 13) of ICAO standards. Since the ECAA did not have the necessary resources to conduct an investigation, the Egyptian government asked the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to take over the investigation. Two weeks after the disaster, the NTSB offered to turn over the investigation files to the US FBI, as materials had been collected that indicated that the disaster was deliberate and not accidental.

This proposal did not suit the Egyptian side, and she asked the NTSB to investigate further. Further evidence of a deliberate crash was collected, but here the Egyptian government abandoned its original decision and took the investigation into the disaster into their own hands. The two investigations came to very different conclusions: the NTSB concluded that the accident was caused by the actions of the second pilot of the reserve crew, Gamil El-Batuti. The ECAA claimed that the cause of the crash was in the aircraft's control system.

Cultural aspects

The crash is shown in the 3rd season of the Canadian documentary television series Air Crash Investigation in the episode EgyptAir Flight 990. It is also mentioned in the book by I. A. Muromov "100 Great Air Crashes" in the chapter "Boeing 767 Crash" over the Atlantic.

see also

• A320 crash near Digne-les-Bains
• Boeing 737 crash near Palembang

Links

• NTSB Final Report
• ATC transmission transcript
• Cockpit voice recorder complete transcript (English) (Arabic)
• flight data recorder data summary
• NTSB debris image links Structural debris, structural debris, engine debris
• EgyptAir press releases:
  • Statement of NTSB chairman Jim Hall on Egyptair Flight 990
• ECAA links:
  • Final report - Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority
• Media links:
  • "Egyptair crash" - The Guardian - Archive of various news stories
  • Egypt's ambassador praises work on Flight 990 probe - CNN
  • Interview with author William Langewiesche
  • 217 feared dead in EgyptAir crash - CNN
  • Crash of Flight 990, CBS News
  • The Egyptian State Information Service: Hosni Mubarak receives condolences from Arab and Israeli leaders, as well as the United States (Available Through Archive.Org)
• Other links:
  • PlaneCrashInfo.Com - Entry on MS990
  • AirDisaster.Com - Entry on MS990
  • Description of the incident on the Aviation Safety Network
  • EgyptAir Crash Mystery - MacLean's Magazine
  • St. Petersburg Times - EgyptAir 990 Passenger List

Boeing 767 crash near Nantucket

Airplane

Flight MSR990 that day was operated by a Boeing 767-366ER (registration number SU-GAP, serial number 24542, name Tuthmosis III) was released on September 26, 1989 and immediately transferred to EgyptAir. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney 4060 turbojet engines. The aircraft was the 282nd Boeing 767 built. By October 1999, it had completed 7,594 takeoff and landing cycles and flown 33,354 hours.

Crew

• Aircraft commander (FAC) - 57-year-old Ahmed El-Khabashi (from English. Ahmed El Habashi). Veteran pilot, worked for EgyptAir for 36 years. Piloted Boeing 707 and Boeing 737-200. On March 9, 1999, he became the commander of the Boeing 767. He flew 14384 hours, 6356 of them on the Boeing 767.
• Co-pilot - 36-year-old Adel Anwar (from English. Adel Anwar).
• Reserve FAC - 52-year-old Rauf Nureldin (from English. Raouf Noureldin).
• Reserve co-pilot - 59-year-old Gamil El Batouti (from English. Gameel Al Batouti). Experienced pilot, worked for EgyptAir for 12 years. He flew a Boeing 737-200 as a co-pilot. On June 19, 1999, he became the co-pilot of the Boeing 767. He flew 12538 hours, 5191 of them on the Boeing 767.

In addition to the crew, in the cockpit was the chief pilot of the airline EgyptAir - FAC Hatem Rashdi (from English. Hatem Rushdy).

Passengers

There were 203 passengers from seven countries on board. 54 US passengers, many of them elderly, were on the Grand Circle tour. Of all 203 passengers in Los Angeles, only 32 passengers boarded Flight 990, all the rest boarded in New York. Passengers included 4 non-commercial EgyptAir crew members and 33 Egyptian officers returning from the exercise: two Brigadier Generals, a Colonel, a Major and four Egyptian Air Force officers.

Catastrophe

EgyptAir Flight 990 took off from New York Airport. John F. Kennedy at 01:19 local time. At 01:44 the plane took the height of 4500 meters. At 01:50, the crew commander Ahmed El-Khabashi went to the restroom, after 30 seconds the co-pilot Gamil El-Batuti whispered: “ Tawkalt ala Allah» (« I rely on God"). He said this phrase seven times. After another 3 seconds, the throttles of both engines of the aircraft were reduced to a minimum, the aircraft pecked nose down and began to dive. The PIC, who returned to the cockpit, asked the co-pilot: “ What's happening? What's happening?", but he continued to repeat:" I rely on God". The captain again asked the co-pilot: What it is? What is this? Did you turn off the engines?". He quickly sat at the helm and ordered Batuti: “ Pull for me". The PIC began to climb the aircraft, but the co-pilot continued to pull the yoke down. At 01:52 local time, EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, 97 kilometers from Nantucket Island. Seconds before the plane crashed into the water, the left engine blew off. All 217 people died.

Investigation

Since the crash occurred in neutral waters, the responsibility for what happened fell on the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation (ECAA), as follows from Appendix 13 (Annex 13) of ICAO standards. Since the ECAA did not have the necessary resources to conduct an investigation, the Egyptian government asked the US National Transportation Security Administration (NTSB) to take over the investigation. Two weeks after the disaster, the NTSB offered to turn over the investigation files to the US FBI, as materials had been collected that indicated that the disaster was deliberate and not accidental.

This proposal did not suit the Egyptian side, and she asked the NTSB to investigate further. Further evidence of a deliberate crash was collected, but here the Egyptian government abandoned its original decision and took the investigation into the disaster into their own hands. The two investigations came to very different conclusions: the NTSB concluded that the crash was caused by the actions of reserve crew co-pilot Gamil El Batouti. The ECAA claimed that the cause of the crash was in the aircraft's control system.

Cultural aspects

The crash is shown in the 3rd season of the Canadian documentary television series Air Crash Investigation in the episode "EgyptAir-990 Flight"

Recently, the world was shocked by the crash of an Airbus A320, which is believed to have occurred because the co-pilot decided to commit suicide. According to statistics over the past 30 years, 44 pilots deliberately sent planes into the last dive. All the pilots who decided to commit suicide were men, and most of them, as it turned out later, took such a terrible step because of family problems.

1. Andreas Lubitz - Germanwings Flight 9525 (2015)

Literally 2 days ago, on April 4, the search for the bodies of those killed at the crash site of Germanwings flight 9525 ended. Recall that the Airbus A320, en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, crashed into the mountain slope of the Alps. All 144 passengers and 6 crew members were killed in the process. It is believed that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, was responsible for the crash. After the captain of the aircraft went to the bathroom, Andreas locked himself in the cockpit, turned off the autopilot, and steered the plane straight uphill. As it became known, Lubitz was treated for depression.

2. Gamil El Batouti - EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999)

On October 31, 199, an EgyptAir Boeing 767-366ER flying between Los Angeles and Cairo crashed into the water near Nantucket Island. At the same time, 218 people died. A subsequent investigation by the Americans showed that the cause of the accident was a deliberate act on the part of co-pilot Gamil El Batouti. The Egyptians claim that the accident was caused by a mechanical failure. However, on the black box footage, co-pilot El Batouti can be heard whispering "I trust in God", after which the engine speed of the aircraft dropped to a minimum. When Captain Ahmed El-Habashi returned to the cockpit, he desperately tried to gain altitude, but the co-pilot kept whispering "I trust in God" and pulling the yoke down.

3. Erminio dos Santos Fernandez - LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 (2013)

Two years before Andreas Lubitz orchestrated the Germanwings tragedy, Mozambique experienced a very similar disaster that killed all 33 people on board. Captain Herminio dos Santos Fernandez set up the autopilot in such a way that it was obvious that he had "clear intent" to send the plane into the ground. Dos Santos Fernandez waited until the co-pilot went to the toilet, locked himself in the cockpit, reconfigured the autopilot and ignored the ground warning signals. The pilot's motives are unknown.

4. Tsu Wai Ming - SilkAir Flight MI 185 (1997)

The Boeing 737-36N took off from Jakarta, Indonesia for Singapore on December 19, 1997. The weather was clear and the aircraft was practically new. The aircraft reached its cruising altitude of 10 kilometers over the island of Sumatra, after which it suddenly rolled over and entered an almost vertical dive. When it crashed at supersonic speed into a river near Palembang, all 104 people on board were killed. The plane crashed with such force that the largest fragment was only 3 meters in size. Investigation revealed that the cockpit voice recorder had been deliberately disabled. The main version of the disaster is the suicide of the pilot Tsu Wai Ming, who, as it turned out, had huge debts.

5. Chris Fatswe - Air Botswana (1999)

Chris Fatswe decided to take his own life on October 11, 1999, when he took off from Gaborone Airport and circled in the air in an empty ATR-42 aircraft for almost two hours. He contacted the control tower by radio and announced: "I intend to commit suicide", after which he demanded to speak with the vice-president of Botswana, Ian Hama. Fatswe threatened to crash the plane into the Air Botswana office building, but after being told that there were people there, he sent his ATR-42 into two other similar planes on the ground, destroying everything in a huge explosion.

6. Seiji Katagiri - Japan Airlines Flight 350 (1983)

In 1982, 35-year-old aircraft captain Seiji Katagiri reversed the engines of his DC-8 aircraft during flight, causing the aircraft to make an emergency water landing in Tokyo Bay. 24 of the 174 people on board were killed. On approaching the airport, it was reported that Katagiri's condition was abnormal and "the pilot was crying loudly in the cockpit." After the investigation began, it was revealed that Seiji Katagiri suffered from hallucinations and depression prior to the flight.

7. Younes Hayati - Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 (1994)

Royal Air Maroc captain Younes Hayati, 32, purposefully flew an ATR 42-312 passenger plane uphill in 1994. As a result, all 44 people on board were killed. As the investigation showed, the captain's suicide, caused by unhappy love, was the cause.

8 Brian J Hedglin - St. George's Municipal Airport Incident (2012)

In 2012, pilot Brian J Hedglin attempted to hijack a Skywest plane while he was wanted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. The 40-year-old pilot, in the process of taxiing to the runway, caught the wing of the airport building, rammed several cars, then sent the liner to the parking lot and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

9. Vladimir Serkov - Novosibirsk (1976)

Early on the morning of September 26, 1976, pilot Vladimir Serkov made an unauthorized takeoff in an An-2 aircraft from Severny Airport in Novosibirsk, Russia. He circled over the city for some time at extremely low altitude, after which he rammed a residential building. The plane crashed into the building between the third and fourth floors, punching a hole in the wall about a meter in diameter. Serkov was killed in a clash that started a fire and caused 4 more deaths. During the investigation, it was found that Serkov's ex-wife, who cheated on him and decided to leave her husband, lived in this house.

And yet, according to statistics, the probability of crashing on an airplane is negligible compared to the danger of getting into a plane crash. We have collected .

Perhaps the most mysterious case in the history of aviation occurred with the American writer and aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.

The history of aviation knows cases when the planes also did not give a distress signal, and after the disappearance they did not leave any traces and debris.

Here are just some of the most high-profile and mysterious plane crashes, which could not do without mysticism:

Amelia Earhart (1937)

The mystery of the last flight of Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot, is still unsolved. In 1937, while attempting to fly around the world in a twin-engine Model 10 Electra, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan went missing in the central Pacific. According to one version, the plane simply ran out of fuel, according to another, Amelia Earhart and Frederick Noonan were captured by the Japanese, who were building their military bases on the islands located in this part of the Pacific Ocean.

Cessna aircraft (1972)

On October 16, 1972, Democratic Congressman Thomas Hale Boggs and politician Nick Begich boarded a twin-engine Cessna bound for Alaska's capital, Juneau. However, the plane was never destined to deliver passengers to their destination - it disappeared without a trace. Even the 39-day search, which was called "the largest in the history of Alaska", because. 70 aircraft were involved in them, they did not give any results.

Various theories have been put forward as to the cause of the plane crash. It was rumored that the plane was shot down by the Serbs because of Begich's Croatian roots. Another version pointed to the political background of Boggs, who was a member of the Warren Commission.

TWA Flight 800 (1996)

A Boeing 747 flying from New York to Rome exploded mid-air and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. All 230 passengers on board died. Experts from the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the likely cause of the crash was a fuel tank explosion due to faulty electrical wiring.

However, conspiracy theorists believe that the cause of the explosion was a bomb planted on board the aircraft or a collision with a US Navy missile.

In a briefing last summer, the National Safety Board confirmed that neither the testimony, nor the debris found, nor the records from the flight recorders support the assumption of a collision between an aircraft and a missile.

EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999)

A Boeing 767 flying between Los Angeles and Cairo crashed and fell into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff. The disaster claimed the lives of 200 people. After a 2-year investigation, it was found that the plane crash was caused by the wrong actions of the crew commander.

All the evidence collected by the National Council, including the flight path of the aircraft and data from the flight recorders, indicated that the commander and chief officer in the last minutes of their lives tried to take control of the aircraft into their own hands. The senior officer repeatedly repeated: "I rely on God." This version did not suit the Egyptian side, and she put forward her own - the cause of the disaster was a malfunction of the aircraft control system.

Air France flight 447 (2009)

This fatal aerial incident occurred in 2009 involving an Airbus A 330 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The plane with 228 passengers on board crashed into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. As in the case of the missing Malaysian aircraft, the Air France pilots did not issue a distress signal. A full-scale search and rescue operation for five days did not produce any results. Then some fragments of the tail section of the aircraft were found.