EgyptAir urges NTSB for intensive inquiry into the loss of flight 990

EgyptAir said that investigations into the October 1999 crash of its Flight 990, and other Boeing 767s, raised serious questions about the integrity of the elevator control system, which makes the aircraft go up and down.

A statement released late Wednesday by the national air carrier, a few hours before receiving National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) draft investigative report into the crash that killed all 217 passengers on board while en route from New York to Cairo, cited examples involving Boeing 767 flight control problems.

"These involve an American Airlines Boeing 767 which experienced jammed elevator controls approaching Paris, a Gulf Air Boeing 767 in Bahrain where a critical sheared rivets was found, and previous documented anomalies including an Aero Mexico Boeing 767 that was found to have the same sheared rivets in two different areas of the elevator control system," Egypt Air said.

This, it added, should give cause to both the NTSB and Boeing to further investigate the flight control system.

"The American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued directives in August 2000 and again in March 2001 that alerted operators of Boeing 767 aircraft about an "unsafe conditions" in the elevator control system in the tail section of this model aircraft," the Egypt Air press release said.

''We believe much remains to be done to determine the cause of the Flight 990 accident," the airline said.

Despite the NTSB investigations, no evidence for mechanical failure was found in the US Air Boeing 737 crash near Pittsburgh in September 1994 and the United Airlines Boeing 737 crash near Colorado Springs in March 1991.

However, years later and after exhaustive and detailed testing and analysis, the NTSB concluded in both instances that the Boeing 737 rudder control system in the tail of the aircraft caused these accidents.

"As a result, the Boeing 737 flight control system was redesigned and retrofitted on existing Boeing 737 aircraft," the Egypt Air statement said.

"The possibility of a critical deficiency in the Boeing 767 elevator control system deserves the same level of examination and analysis," it added.

"We urge the NTSB, the FAA and Boeing to continue to press their inquiry into what caused the loss of Flight 990 and to consider the possibility that there might be an inherent flaw in the design and/or maintenance procedures of the Boeing 767 flight control system," Egypt Air said.

"We and the aviation industry owe it to the families of those aboard Flight 990- and to the flying public- to learn what caused this tragedy and to ensure that it never happens again," it added.

NTSB Spokesman Keith Holloway, in statements to MENA, denied there was any link between the delay in forwarding the report to the Egyptian government, that was to have been presented late March, and the detection of problems in the elevator control system in the American United Airlines Boeing 767, the same type of the ill-fated Egypt Air plane, when it was landing at Charles De Gaulle Airport late last month.

"The delay was only part of the investigations, and no date for the presentation of the report to the Egyptian side was actually set," he said. The Egypt Air Flight 990 took off on October 31, 1999 from New York's John F. Kennedy airport en route to Cairo.

After climbing to 33,000 feet into the air and 40 minutes after takeoff, it plunged into the sea south of Nantucket Island. All 217 passengers on board were killed.