NEWPORT, R.I. -- Experienced pilots are mystified by flight recorder data they say shows that EgyptAir Flight 990 was deliberately put into a dive, saying whatever was done in the cockpit was not a standard emergency measure.
One veteran former 767 pilot said the actions indicated by the tape were consistent with what someone in the cockpit would do if they deliberately wanted to crash the plane.Another, Barry Schiff, a former TWA 767 pilot from Los Angeles and currently an aviation accident investigator, said the data shows that some human factor was responsible rather than some system failure.
"I racked my brain and I can't think of any emergency that would lead to these maneuvers," said Schiff.
Preliminary data released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board showed that the plane was put into a dive so steep and fast that passengers would briefly have been rendered weightless. And both engines were shut off before the aircraft climbed briefly out of its dive and then turned and plunged into the ocean.
NTSB chairman James Hall said the data raised many questions and offered no conclusions on what caused the plane to crash two weeks ago on a flight from New York to Cairo, killing all 217 people on board.
Investigators hope the plane's cockpit voice recorder will answer the questions raised by the data recorder's information.
Two underwater robots were back at work scouring the ocean floor all day Saturday searching for the voice recorder amid the plane's wreckage.