Tape Raises Questions on Co-Pilot

WASHINGTON —  A pilot at the controls of the ill-fated EgyptAir Flight 990 apparently said, “I made my decision now,” and expressed his devotion to God just before the autopilot on the transatlantic flight was disabled, law enforcement sources said Wednesday as new details emerged about the moments preceding the Oct. 31 crash.

Seconds after that declaration, investigators say, the plane began its high-speed descent from 33,000 feet and another pilot entered the cockpit and asked what was happening. That, in turn, may have set off a battle for control of the aircraft, according to a theory investigators are pursuing with increasing intensity.

New evidence released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board showed that the controls on the pilot’s side of the cockpit were pushing up the plane’s No. 1 “elevator”--and the nose of the plane--while the first officer’s controls were thrusting the Boeing 767 down.

While Egyptians cautioned against rushing to judgment, the new information may bolster investigators’ theory that EgyptAir co-pilot Gamil Batouty--sitting in the first officer’s seat--may have sent the New York-to-Cairo flight hurtling toward the ocean, killing all 217 people aboard, the sources said.

“It certainly appears that someone was in the first officer’s seat pushing the nose down and someone was in the captain’s seat pushing the nose up, so they were working at cross-purposes,” according to an official close to the investigation.

At one point on the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the downed plane, one pilot is heard imploring another to work with him, according to a senior government official. “Pull with me. Help me. Pull with me,” the pilot reportedly said.

The NTSB is still considering whether the case should be turned over to the FBI for criminal investigation. That handoff was to occur earlier this week, but the Egyptian government protested that the move was premature. The NTSB deferred by agreeing to allow more time for Egyptian experts to assist in reviewing the crash evidence. One team of Egyptian pilots and aviation experts arrived in the United States earlier this week, and others are expected today.

“It’s our position that we should await a thorough investigation. Let us not rush to judgment,” said an Egyptian diplomat who asked not to be identified.

That plea was echoed by family members of Batouty, who said in interviews Wednesday in Cairo and Los Angeles that it is preposterous to suggest the 59-year-old Egyptian would have committed suicide, taking 216 others with him.

“It’s against the religion, our faith, to commit suicide,” said Batouty’s nephew Sharif Batouty in Cairo. “So if you are going to commit suicide, you don’t say, ‘Please God, help me do it.’ ”

Mohsen M. Hamza, a Beverly Hills neurologist and professor who is the husband of Batouty’s niece, said the family has listened with growing horror to news reports that have suggested financial difficulties or distress over his young daughter’s health would have precipitated suicide.

“This is not a denial process we’re talking about,” Hamza said in an interview at his Wilshire Boulevard office. Referring to depictions of Batouty in the media, he added that “from a [rational] standpoint, that person does not exist.”

Hamza confirmed that Batouty’s 10-year-old daughter, Aya, suffers from lupus, an autoimmune disorder that affects the vascular and connective tissue. She had received frequent treatments at UCLA Medical Center, the last on Sept. 16, Hamza said. But her condition was neither life-threatening nor debilitating, he said.

“She goes to regular school and she has done fantastically,” said Hamza, who saw the little girl on her last trip from Egypt.

As for the reported prayers in the cockpit, Hamza said it would not necessarily have been unusual. He said he has flown EgyptAir many times, and even passengers frequently join the crew in a prayer before the flight.

Suspicion has focused on Batouty in large part because of remarks from a voice identified as his on the cockpit voice recorder.

According to one translation, Batouty was heard to say in Arabic, “I made my decision now. I put my faith in God’s hands,” according to Associated Press. Law enforcement sources said that although they could not confirm that exact wording, words similar to those in Arabic are heard on the tape.

Investigators still are parsing the digital readout to determine exactly what was said in the flight’s final moments, who said it, how it is best translated into English and what it signifies. But officials caution that it is a difficult task. “Every time an interpreter listens to it, there are nuances, and everyone interprets [the remarks in Arabic] differently. I don’t think it’s settled,” one law enforcement source said.

Indeed, an Egyptian official said that one of the religious references attributed to Batouty, affirming his faith in God, may not prove meaningful. “It’s an expression I use all the time, like any other Muslim,” the diplomat said.

Michael Hudson, head of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, said it is prudent for the United States to move cautiously before turning the investigation over to the FBI, considering Egypt’s place as a key ally that receives nearly $2 billion a year in U.S. aid--the second highest total of any nation.

Many Arabs resent U.S. “arrogance and world domination,” and bringing in the FBI could exacerbate a sensitive situation, he said.

“The FBI has a bad reputation [among many Arabs]. It’s an intelligence agency, it’s intrusive, and for reasons of national pride, to have FBI agents sifting through financial and health records of passengers on the plane, that’s politically awkward,” Hudson said. “We have a lot at stake in maintaining a good relationship with Egypt.”

One source close to the investigation predicted Wednesday that an agreement would be reached between the United States and Egypt to jointly scrutinize the crash--but added that it is still uncertain just how much cooperation Egypt may ultimately offer.

One complication is that EgyptAir is a national airline, so Egypt could face potential lawsuits from victims’ families, the source noted.

Veteran aviation lawyers said that under international transport agreements relatives of those who perished aboard the plane will not face a limit on the liability they could seek through lawsuits.

But in order for their cases to be tried in U.S. courts, relatives of the victims must satisfy provisions of the Warsaw Convention, which for EgyptAir requires that the tickets be bought in the United States or have the U.S. as the ultimate destination.

Otherwise, claims would have to be filed in Egypt, with the possibility of smaller settlements.

“We are not accepting cases where the round-trip ticket ended up in Egypt,” said Lee Kraindler, whose New York firm has represented families in a number of major air crashes. “You can’t get decent damages in Egypt for wrongful death.”

On Wednesday, a $50-million suit was filed against EgyptAir and Boeing Co. by the estate of a New Jersey man who died on the flight.

Experts predicted that recovering pieces of the plane would be far more difficult than the massive effort that raised more than 98% of TWA Flight 800, which plunged into the Atlantic on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board.

“It is a much tougher recovery,” said a veteran of the TWA salvage operation. “Once you get into November, the sea is so bad, it is very hard to dive. The pieces [of debris] are a lot smaller than TWA, and it will be very tough to get them all.”

Times staff writers Carla Rivera in Los Angeles, John Daniszewski in Cairo, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Robin Wright in Washington and researcher Lynette Ferdinand in New York contributed to this story. Lichtblau reported from Washington and Goldman from New York.