NTSB releases Egyptair crash analysis but reports no conclusions yet

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) today released more than 1,600 pages of analysis about the 1999 crash of Eqyptair flight 990, but was not prepared to say what brought the Boeing 767 down. "That analysis will be compiled in the future," the AP reported NTSB chairman James Hall as saying.

Full-text .pdf versions of selected reports from the NTSB information released today, including reports on operational data, ATC data, flight data recorders and a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, are available for download from Aerospace Online's Download Library. Click here for a .pdf version of the cockpit voice recorder report and transcript. Click here for a .pdf version of the air traffic control group report. Click here for a .pdf version of the flight data recorder report.

The NTSB report is a joint effort of investigators from the United States and Egypt. Tensions between the two countries have reportedly been strained, particularly after suggestions were made that one of the Egyptair pilots might have intentionally brought the aircraft down.

Egyptair flight 990, a scheduled flight from New York to Cairo, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean about 60 miles south of Nantucket Island, MA, on Oct. 31, 1999. All occupants of the plane - four flightcrew, 10 flight attendants and 203 passengers - were killed in the crash.

The airplane was a Boeing 767-366 ER, a stretched and extended range version of the basic 767. It was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney 4000 turbofan engines.