As head of Egyptian investigators probing the crash of Flight 990 Shaker Qilada remembers how his team fought a tough battle with the Americans Although they insist they did their best, Shaker Qilada and his investigative team of Egyptian experts came under fire throughout the duration of the probe. The public, usually wary of US intentions towards Arabs and Muslims, remained suspicious when it came to judging the efforts of Egyptian investigators who sought to reveal how the plane was downed. Some believed political decisions were involved in the probe. Others believed the Egyptian team had done their best but that it was not enough. Qilada led the Egyptian investigation team for more than three years. At present, he works as the head of the Central Administration for Air Transport Crash Investigation, affiliated to the Aviation Ministry. After 10 years, Qilada is less tense when he speaks about the crash probe. He insists it was not closed due to a political decision, even if politics had interfered in some way. "The Egyptian report on the probable cause of the crash had been clear in saying that we did not agree with the NTSB's explanation of the crash. We went even further to complete tests and analyses of data, in cooperation with international insurance companies, which the American report did not cover. The Egyptian position did not change but we could not do more," Qilada said. Qilada insists that authorising the NTSB to take over the crash probe was the only choice. "At the time of the accident, we neither had an advanced laboratory to analyse black box data nor could we afford the full costs of retrieving the wreckage from the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand, the US NTSB is one of the five biggest air transport accident investigation bodies, in addition to those of Canada, France, England and Australia." At the request of the Egyptian government, the NTSB assumed full responsibility of the investigation. "The NTSB investigators refused to continue the tests we requested to discover if the pilot responded to a mechanical failure with a series of procedures that put the plane to its doomed end. They were satisfied with using his religious words as proof, to make him look responsible for the crash." Qilada believed that using a scientific explanation of the crash based only on a misleading translation of the co-pilot's words was the work of politics and business. "Airplane manufacturers will defend their business to the very end. Moreover, in some cases, pilots will take the side of manufacturers to earn their living. During the confrontation with the Americans and the propagation of the suicide theory, we -- Egyptian pilots -- attended a meeting of the Pilots Union in Jamaica. The representative of the American union held several meetings with international NTSB officials to defend the co-pilot. He then told me that he was convinced with the Egyptian explanation but would not back us. He said the fleet of B767 consisted of 864 airplanes. Grounding the fleet for technical defects might have resulted in the pilots losing their jobs. "Since the crash of an Air France plane near Brazil six months ago, not too much has been released about the accident. You see what I mean. The plane is French-made and operated by a French airline." The NTSB report determined that the probable cause of the accident was the airplane's departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs. The reason for the relief first officer's actions was not determined. Against such conclusion, the Safety Board received two submissions from EgyptAir; stating that the suicide scenario is not consistent with the data and facts of the accident. Analysis revealed several radar returns forming continuous paths crossing the flight path of EgyptAir flight 990, which may reflect deliberate (evasive) action by one of the pilots. "Without further information concerning the data from military and FAA radar, one cannot rule out the possibility that the [relief] first officer may have been attempting to avoid or manoeuvre the aircraft out of a perceived dangerous situation at the time the dive occurred." "It is clear that the first officer did not commit suicide," concluded the submission. Further investigation of the elevator control system's design, in conjunction with the other factual information available, is necessary before a conclusion can be reached regarding the true cause of the crash." EgyptAir also contended in its submission that the co-pilot was not alone in the cockpit at the onset of the dive and that at least three flight crew members were in the cockpit during the descent. "The analyses we conducted with the help of insurance companies proved without doubt that the co-pilot was not alone when the plane started to suffer from mechanical failure. Another co-pilot in the cockpit was the first to notice a problem with the plane elevators. He warned Gamil El-Battouti, saying 'control it' and then rushed out of the cockpit to summon the two other captains. One was resting and the other was in the toilet." The CVR analysis said four Arabic speaking members of the probe believe they heard words similar to "control it". One English speaking member believes that he heard a word similar to "hydraulic". The five other members believe that the word(s) were unintelligible. "The accurate analysis of the CVR also proved that the two captains rushed to the cockpit and along with the co-pilot attempted to put the plane up again. We could recognise the voice of captains Mohamed El-Habashi and Hatem Rushdi together with El-Battouti who while repeating his religious words, cooperated with the captain's orders to shut the engines," Qilada indicated. Ten years on, Qilada is still bitter that he and his colleagues failed to persuade the American investigators to continue in order to get to the truth. "I still remember what NTSB chief James said in the middle of our work when the suicide pilot theory hampered our efforts. "We have underestimated the abilities of the Egyptian people and your team of experts," he said. "Otherwise, we would have dealt with it differently." "If Egypt possessed such an advanced laboratory to analyse the black boxes as it does now, the probe would not have gone to the Americans," he added.
