WASHINGTON -- A team of government safety experts, hired translators and Egyptian, FBI and manufacturer representatives is trying to precisely transcribe EgyptAir 990's cockpit voice recorder tape, and they expect to take at least five days.
With no evidence of explosion or mechanical malfunction, investigators have focused on the voice recorder tape.On that tape, a relief co-pilot alone in the cockpit is heard to say "I made my decision now; I put my faith in God's hands" just before the Boeing 767 began its fatal plunge into the Atlantic off the Massachusetts coast, officials close to the investigation said Wednesday. Moments after the dive began, the pilot returned to struggle futilely to pull out.
Egypt's ambassador to the United States on Thursday questioned whether that statement is on the tape.
Interviewed Thursday on NBC's "Today," Ambassador Nabil Fahmy said, "I've listened to the tape myself, but I will refrain from commenting on the contents." Asked whether the statement "sounds like a statement of suicide," Fahmy replied: "No, it does not, if it was said." He declined to say whether the tape raises doubt about a suicide scenario.
The National Transportation Safety Board's cockpit voice recorder group and translators began work Thursday on "a literal, factual transcript of all conversations and sounds," the board said. They will be assisted by representatives from Boeing Co., which built the plane, along with officials from engine-maker Pratt & Whitney, the Federal Aviation Administration and Egypt, which objected to transferring the case to the FBI before Egyptian experts could analyze the tape.
The group will work all weekend and hopes to complete the transcript next week, the NTSB said.
Meantime, a federal law enforcement official and other sources close to the investigation described the evidence that led the United States to the verge of putting the FBI in charge of the inquiry as a potential criminal matter.
The current theory of the Oct. 31 crash that killed 217 people is both tentative and incomplete, the law enforcement official stressed.
Electronic enhancement of the tape recording and input from Egyptian experts could alter the sketchy understanding of what went on. NTSB Chairman James Hall has said, "There are significant differences in the cultural interpretations of some expressions on the (voice) recorder."
The law enforcement official and other sources close to the case gave this account of what investigators found by synchronizing the crew's words and actions as captured on the cockpit voice recorder with the flight data recorder's account of the plane's movements:
Relief co-pilot Gameel el-Batouty, scheduled to take over later in the 11-hour New York-to-Cairo flight, enters the cockpit and asks to fly. His request is granted.
The cockpit door is opened later, after which there is no conversation, leading investigators to conclude el-Batouty is alone.
He says in Arabic: "I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands."
Shortly thereafter, the autopilot is turned off at 33,000 feet. Eight seconds later, the NTSB said Wednesday, the tail flaps, or elevators, are moved to push the aircraft's nose down and it begins a steep descent.
The cockpit door opens again. Investigators believe the pilot, Capt. Ahmed Mahmoud el-Habashy, has returned because he is heard to ask what's going on. They believe he tries to regain control because he is heard to say, "Pull with me. Help me. Pull with me." There is no sound of struggle, but some investigators believe that phrase is said in an argumentative tone.
In Egypt, relatives angrily rejected any notion el-Batouty planned to commit suicide, described him as a loving father of five and denied the family had financial problems. Family members said el-Batouty had just bought two tires in the United States for his son's car and they believed the tires were on Flight 990.