Moussa denies the arrival of FBI investigators at Cairo
Egypt-USA, Local, 11/23/1999

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa stated that the current investigation to determining the reasons for the crash of EgyptAir flight 990 is still technical and has not yet moved to the criminal frame, denying reports by foreign newspapers that the accident was a suicide attempt and saying that it is absolutely false information.

Moussa denied the arrival of investigators from US Fedral Beureau of Investigation (FBI) in Cairo to investigate the crash, saying that US and Egyptian experts are working together to analyze the results of the two black boxes recovered from the plane's wreckage.

Egyptian Transportation Minister Ibrahim El-Demiri said there was "a tendency and pressure to conclude that the accident was the result of an Egyptian mistake, but the documents have proven this tendency was wrong."

"There was intense pressure to change the course of the investigation into the fall of the Egyptian plane, put the cause of the crash down to human error as a result of suicide by a co-pilot and pass the investigation to the FBI," Demiri added.

"Everything said in the US media is distorted," he said.

EgyptAir chairman Mohammed Fahim Rayan said an inspection earlier this year by the International Civil Aviation Organization "placed Egypt in the rank of the leading countries in (aircraft) maintenance and care for pilots."

The Egyptian Pilots Association, meanwhile, welcomed criticism from the US National Transportation Safety Board chief of US media coverage of the investigation. "All Egyptian pilots are happy that (Jim Hall) said that published leaks were false and that he expressed his anger and regret at the leak of undocumented information," EPA head Walid Murad said.

Previous Stories:
  Egypt, US seek fresh start as crash probe intensifies   (11/22/1999)
  US NTSB latest report on EgyptAir crash   (11/20/1999)
  Egypt-US agree on importance of not jumping wrong conclusions on aircraft crash   (11/20/1999)

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