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By Mark Hosenball
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The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its final report on the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 later this year. As currently drafted, the report concludes that control inputs by the plane's reserve copilot, Gamil al-Batouti, probably caused the Boeing 767 aircraft to begin its fatal dive on Oct. 31, 1999. That's a diplomatic way of saying what the investigators really think: that a suicidal Batouti deliberately put the plane into its descent. EgyptAir and the Egyptian government emphatically reject this explanation.
Why are U.S. investigators so sure it was pilot suicide? NEWSWEEK has learned that U.S. intelligence secretly monitored communications between Cairo and an Egyptian investigating team in Washington. Intelligence sources say the intercepts reveal that the Egyptian investigators privately agreed with their U.S. counterparts that suicide was the likely cause of the crash.
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Another reason: U.S. investigators have access to secret interviews with a witness who offered a motive for Batouti's despair. The witness is a former EgyptAir pilot, Hamdi Hanafi Taha, who sought political asylum in Britain in February 2000. U.S. sources say Taha told FBI agents that he heard secondhand reports about a meeting between Batouti and senior EgyptAir pilots in New York a day or two before the crash. According to Taha, the senior pilots told Batouti that EgyptAir was fed up with his shenanigans, which included complaints of sexual harassment. The pilots informed Batouti that because of his antics, Flight 990 would be the last flight of his career.
NTSB sources say that while Taha, an alleged Islamic militant, has "credibility problems," American investigators believe that his story is a key piece of the puzzle. At the FBI's request, however, the NTSB is keeping secret the bureau's interviews with Taha. Nonetheless, the Egyptians were so concerned about Taha's story that it insisted U.S. officials interview a senior EgyptAir pilot who could refute Taha's allegations. A transcript of that interview quotes EgyptAir Capt. Mohamed Badrawi denying any confrontation between himself, Batouti and an EgyptAir chief pilot in the days before the crash. A passenger on Flight 990, the chief pilot died in the crash.
U.S. officials say Egyptian authorities obstructed efforts by American investigators to look into Batouti's lifestyle and to corroborate Taha's story. The Egyptians (and the American experts they hired to help discredit the NTSB's theory) insist the crash was caused by a still undetermined mechanical problem. Says Mahmoud Gaafar, an Egyptian Embassy spokesman: "We don't know what happened. Period."
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