US NTSB's latest remarks on Flight 990 crash investigation
Egypt-USA, Local, 11/18/1999

A group that includes representatives of Egypt, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as translators employed by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), is meeting today at the NTSB laboratory to begin work on a full transcript of the contents of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from EgyptAir flight 990. The "literal, factual transcript" is to include "all conversations and sounds recorded on the CVR," according to the NTSB.

The NTSB added in a "factual update" on the investigation thus far that the group plans to work through the weekend and finish the transcript next week.

The NTSB said that it has a readout now on the last few seconds of information contained on the flight data recorder. "The pitch attitude of the aircraft moved from 40 degrees nose down to 10 degrees nose down. The speed brake handle moved from the stowed position to the deployed position. The last altitude registered was about 16,400 feet, at which time the aircraft was travelling at 574 knots true airspeed," it said.

It also provided further information on the plane's two elevators, "During the last 15 seconds, the number one elevator (left, or pilot's side) was in the nose up position, while the number 2 elevator (right, first officer's side) was in the nose down position. The maximum split between the elevators during that period was about 7 degrees. In the last second of data, the elevator split appears to be lessening."

The NTSB also released the sequence of events as follows:

- While the aircraft was at 33,000 feet, the autopilot cut off. Eight seconds later, the elevator moved into the nose down position, and the throttle was pulled back (reduction of power)

- 14 seconds after the nose down movement began, the aircraft reached Mach 0.86, and the master warning sounded.

- 13 seconds later, the engine start lever went to the "off" position.

- 14 seconds after that, the FDR, CVR and transponder shut off.

- From autopilot cutoff to end of data was about 50 seconds.

On the subject of the recovery of wreckage from the crash site, the NTSB said, "So far, while the debris fields were scanned during the flight recorder retrieval process, they have not been mapped and the locations of particular parts of the aircraft have not yet been identified."

A statement from NTSB chairman Jim Hall yesterday said that since the US Navy has accomplished the task of retrieving the airplane's two "black boxes," the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, responsibility for further salvage operations will be turned over as of today to the US Navy's supervisor of salvage, who has been asked to "contract for a large ship with heavy lift capability that can operate in heavy seas, and send it to the accident site as soon as possible for the retrieval of human remains and aircraft wreckage."

EgyptAir flight 990 crashed on October 31 after departing from New York City for Cairo into international waters in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts, claiming the lives of all 217 persons on board.

Previous Stories:
  EgyptAir investigation direction depends on voice data   (11/16/1999)
  EgyptAir disaster answers may be very near   (11/12/1999)
  Preliminary data on EgyptAir crash yields few answers   (11/11/1999)

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