EgyptAir Flight 990

EgyptAir Flight 990

EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on October 31, 1999, killing all 217 passengers and crew on board. The crash was investigated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Egyptian Civil Aviation Agency and the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB found that the probable cause of the accident was the airplane’s departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic ocean.

About EgyptAir Flight 990 in brief

Summary EgyptAir Flight 990EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on October 31, 1999, killing all 217 passengers and crew on board. The crash was investigated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Egyptian Civil Aviation Agency and the National Transportation Safety Board. Two weeks after the crash, the NTSB proposed handing the investigation over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as the evidence they had collected suggested that a criminal act had taken place. The NTSB found that the probable cause of the accident was the airplane’s departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic ocean. The Egyptian authorities refused to accept the proposal to give the investigation to the FBI, so the NTS B solely continued the investigation. The flight was carrying 203 passengers from seven countries: Egypt, Germany, Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Canada, and the United States. Of the 217 people on board, 89 were Canadian, and seven of other nationalities were from other countries. The EgyptAir crew included 33 Egyptian military officers returning from a training exercise; among them were two brigadier generals, a major, and four air force air force officers. The passengers were booked with the Grand Circle Travel Circle for a 14-day trip to Egypt; 32 boarded in Los Angeles; the rest boarded in New York; four were nonrevenue passengers. The crew was: Captain Ahmed El-Habashi, First Officer Adel Anwar, Captain Raouf Noureldin, 59-year-old relief First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti, and Captain Hatem Rushdy.

The aircraft was a Boeing 767-366ER aircraft with registration SU-GAP, named Tuthmosis III after a pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty. It was delivered to EgyptAir as a new aircraft on September 26, 1989. The active crew customarily made the takeoff and flew the first four to five hours of the flight. The cruise crew then assumed control of the aircraft until about one to two hours before landing, when the active crew returned to the cockpit and assumed control. Because of the 10-hour scheduled flight time, the flight required two complete flight crews, each consisting of one captain and one first officer. While the cruise crew was intended to take over far into the flight, relief first officer Al- Batouti entered the cockpit 20 minutes after takeoff and recommended that he relieve the command first officer 20 minutes later. Captain El- Habashi was a veteran pilot who had been with EgyptAir for 36 years and had accumulated about 14,400 total flight hours, more than 6,300 of which were on the 767. Captain Rushdy had close to 5,200 flight hours and a total of roughly 12,500 hours. He was the airline’s chief pilot for the Boeing 7 67, and he was the captain of the active Crew of the Flight 9 90. Of the 203 passengers, 100 were American, 21 were Egyptian, and seven were from Sudan, Egypt, and Sudan, and 54, many of them were from Canada.