Preliminary data on EgyptAir crash yields few answers
Egypt, Local, 11/11/1999

Preliminary data recovered from EgyptAir flight 990's flight data recorder suggests that the Boeing 767's descent began as a controlled descent, while the aircraft's thrust reverser does not appear to have deployed, a statement issued yesterday by US National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall said.

After an "uneventful" flight, "The first event we note in the data is the autopilot disconnecting. About 8 seconds later, the airplane begins what appears to be a controlled descent. Data recovered so far indicates the airplane descending to about 19,000 feet; we are still in the process of recovering data from the remaining 5 to 10 seconds. The altitude profiles portrayed by the radar data and the flight data recorder appear to be consistent," the statement said.

It added that there is no indication that supersonic speed was reached during the initial descent.

"We await information off the cockpit voice recorder, when it is recovered, that can help us put this information in context," it added, referring to the second "black box," which records the conversations that take place in the aircraft's cockpit. The data that is currently being analyzed is technical data from the first "black box," the flight data recorder.

The search is continuing for the cockpit voice recorder, but bad weather is expected today, which could stall the search.

Meanwhile, EgyptAir Chairman Fahim Rayan said Wednesday that, "A seven-member Egyptian team is joining the American team in unloading the contents of a black box picked up from the Atlantic Ocean."

EgyptAir Flight 990, which departed from New York and was headed for Cairo, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean early on October 31, killing all 217 persons on board.

Previous Stories:
  First black box recovered in EgyptAir crash   (11/9/1999)
  Egyptian plane black boxes found   (11/2/1999)
  Latest on EgyptAir crash   (11/1/1999)

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