The transfer to the FBI of the lead role in the investigation of what caused an Egyptian airliner to crash off the American coast on 31st October with the loss of 217 lives has been postponed for several days.
It had been intended that the FBI would yesterday take over the investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board. This was decided, according to White House officials, after investigators listening to the voice recorder believed they heard someone in the cockpit utter a prayer before EgyptAir Flight 990 began a steep dive from 33,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket Island.
But the Chairman of the NTSB, Mr Jim Hall, announced yesterday that additional Egyptian experts were joining the investigation and that their contribution would be evaluated before any decision to transfer the inquiry to the FBI. US officials remained confident, however, that the transfer would take place. Earlier reports by the NTSB, which has been leading the inquiry, indicated that the voice recorder revealed only normal exchanges between the pilots and with ground control.
But when extra Arabic translators were called in to listen to the recording tapes, which were matched up with the separate flight data recorder, officials revealed that there was some potentially disturbing new evidence.
There are indications that the pilot may have left the cockpit and that then the co-pilot, or someone in his seat, is heard uttering a prayer or a religious phrase after which the Boeing 767 begins its fatal dive.
Following this new evidence, the NTSB decided to turn the leading role in the investigation over to the FBI which has already been involved and has interviewed hundreds of airline personnel and relatives of victims.
The FBI under US law has to take charge of investigations of plane crashes once criminal actions are believed to have taken place.
The flight data recorder had already revealed that after the aircraft reached cruising altitude about 40 minutes out from Kennedy airport, the automatic pilot had been switched off. The data also showed that when the aircraft had almost reached the speed of sound during its dive, someone had turned off the engines.
The aircraft then climbed to over 20,000 feet but at this stage the transponders which transmit data back to radar stations turned off. Other radar data show that the plane then began to break up and fall in pieces.
The investigators have also found that the left and right elevators on the tail which are used to make the aircraft climb or descend began to move in different directions. This has led to speculation that the two pilots were trying to carry out different manoeuvres.
Investigators have also been studying theories that a hijacker may have entered the cockpit and struggled with the pilots causing the fatal manoeuvres.
The Director of the FBI, Mr Louis Freeh, yesterday met the Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, in Washington to discuss the details of the handing over of the investigation. The Egyptian government, which had re quested the US to carry out the inquiry after the crash was also consulted but then asked for a delay while it sent additional experts to listen to the voice recorder.
President Clinton who is in Turkey was briefed on the latest developments.
Intelligence officials have been telling reporters that so far there is no trace of any terrorist involvement in the crash. But investigators will now concentrate on examining the backgrounds of the pilot and co-pilot for any evidence of connections with terrorist groups or of mental instability.
Relatives of the pilots speaking from Cairo to US TV stations have dismissed such theories.
Both pilots had undergone normal psychological evaluations as well as physical tests in the past six months.