All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S06E08.Death.And.Denial.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: A Boeing 767 cruises
high above the Atlantic Ocean

on its way to Egypt.

217 people are on board.

Just half an hour after
takeoff, disaster strikes.

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: The pilot and
co-pilot struggle desperately

for control of their aircraft.

The lives of all on board will
depend on these two pilots

and what they do during
this dive toward the ocean.

I rely on God.

WOMAN: Ladies and gentleman--

MAN: We lost both engines.

WOMAN: Brace for impact!

NARRATOR: It's just after
1:00 AM on October 31, 1999.

The 217 people on board
EqyptAir flight 990

are waiting for takeoff.

The flight's command pilot
is Captain Ahmed El-Habashi.

He has been with
EqyptAir for 36 years.

The command first officer
is 36-year-old Adel Anwar.

He switched duty
with another co-pilot

so he could return home
in time for his wedding.

Soon be a married man.

Congratulations, Adel.

Thank you very much.

NARRATOR: The
airline's chief pilot

for the Boeing 767,
Captain Hatem Rushdy,

joins them in the cockpit.

At 1:20 in the morning,
first officer, Adel Anwar,

is going through his
takeoff clearance

with air traffic control.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL:
(ON RADIO) 6,000.

You fly the gateway climb.

Climbing to 5,000.

Following gateway.

Cleared for takeoff
runway 22 right.

EqyptAir 990 heavy.

Cabin crew advised?

In the name of God, the
merciful, the compassionate,

cabin crew take off position.

NARRATOR: After an
everyday blessing,

the co-pilot
assists the takeoff.

For safety, both pilots
push the throttles.

On a flight of 10 hours,
it is standard practice

at EqyptAir to
provide a relief crew

to share the flying duties.

The command crew
takes off and lands.

The relief crew flies
the middle portion.

Tonight, Captain
Raouf Noureldin

and first officer
Gameel Al-Batouti

are the relief crew.

They will take over after
the first three or four hours

and fly the plane until
shortly before Cairo.

V1 rotate.

Positive rate of
climb both sides.

1,000.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: (ON RADIO)
EqyptAir 990, heavy, contact.

Departure now 125.7.

125.7.

Bye.

NARRATOR: A large
number of passengers

are senior citizens
from the United States,

looking forward to touring
the wonders of ancient Egypt.

My dad and Ginnie were
married in 1998 on October 23.

And to celebrate their
first anniversary,

they decided to take
a trip to Egypt.

NARRATOR: Maureen Sacratini and
her brother, John Simmermeyer

enjoyed the fact that their
parents loved to travel.

JOHN SIMMERMEYER: They had been
particularly fond of a program

known as Elder Hostel.

And this particular
vacation trip

to visit the pyramids and
the other historical sites

in Egypt was an
Elder Hostel trip.

NARRATOR: There are 14 of
EgyptAir's experienced crew

operating the flight.

There are also 33 Egyptian
military officers and pilots

on board, returning
after training

with the American armed forces.

Gameel Al-Batouti used
to be an Egyptian Air

Force flight instructor.

He is now one of the oldest
first officers at EgyptAir.

He is so much older than
the other co-pilots,

that out of respect,
they call him Captain.

But some at EgyptAir
think that Captain

Al-Batouti has been
coasting too long

in the favors of old friends.

Just over 20 minutes
after takeoff,

Al-Batouti is about
to leave his seat.

Former National Transportation
Safety Board investigator,

Greg Phillips became an expert
on the events of this flight.

The relief first officer
who would have been expected

to come to the
cockpit somewhere

during the later part
of the flight, halfway

or wherever he was comfortable
or wherever the normal change

would have been came
into the cockpit

about 20 minutes after takeoff.

Hello, Gameel.

How are you?

How are you, sir?

What's new?

I-- I slept, I swear.

Just wait.

Let me tell you something.

I'm not going to sleep at all.

I might come sit for
two hours and then

I-- I slept.

I slept.

You mean you are
not going to get up?

You will get up.

Go and take some
rest and come back.

You should have told me this.

You should have told me
this, Captain Gameel.

You should have said, Adel--

Did I even see you?

--I will work first.

Just leave me a message.

NARRATOR: The
younger first officer

seems surprised that
Al-Batouti wants to replace

him so early in the flight.

And I'm not sleepy.

So you take your time sleeping.

And when you wake up,
whenever you wake up,

you come back, Captain, OK?

I'll come either way.

Captain--

Come and work the last
few hours and that's all?

It's not like that.

That's not the point.

Look, if you want to sit
here, there's no problem.

I'll go get something to
eat and come back, all right?

Fine, fine, look
here, why don't

they bring your
dinner to you here

and then I'll go sleep, OK?

That's good.

OK, with your
permission, Captain.

NARRATOR: And with
that, Al-Batouti

leaves to get his meal.

Do you see how he does
whatever he pleases?

Do you know why that is?

NARRATOR: Captain
El-Habashi senses

his first officer's
resentment and tries

to smooth over the situation.

Are you a youngster?

NARRATOR: Anwar wonders if
Al-Batouti wants to take over

because he may not want
to work with relief

Captain Raouf Noureldin.

Doesn't he want to
work with Raouf or what?

It's possible.
It's possible.

God knows.

But look, you shouldn't
get upset, right?

By this prophet, he's
just talking nonsense.

That's it.

Everything's under control.

OK, chief.

Thanks again.

NARRATOR: First officer Anwar
concedes and is ready to hand

over to Al-Batouti.

Normally, this is the
most relaxed, easy

part of a long flight for
pilots and passengers alike.

The highly automated
aircraft systems

will take care of the
flying for several hours.

MAN: (ON RADIO)
EqyptAir 990 roger.

GREG PHILLIPS: It's very
unusual for an airplane flying

over the Atlantic at
nighttime to encounter

any kind of difficulties.

We normally expect accidents
to happen in approach

or landing or near airports.

And very seldom do we get
anything out over the ocean

in the middle of the night.

Excuse me,
Gameel, while I take

a quick trip to the toilet.

Go ahead, please.

Before it gets crowded,
while they're still eating.

I'll be back to you.

NARRATOR: EgyptAir's flight
990 appears to be cruising

smoothly over the Atlantic.

Speak of the devil, hey?

NARRATOR: But then, the
plane dips, plunging down.

The nose pitches down,
creating 0 g and weightlessness

throughout the aircraft.

This airplane
basically started

at 1 g, which is what we
expect for level cruise flight.

As you push the nose down
as if you would be cresting

the top of a hill in a car at
a high speed that drops away,

you'd feel the airplane
fall away from you

and you would start to feel
a little light in the seat.

And as the dive
progressed, you would

feel a little bit lighter yet.

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: Whatever the
first officer is intending,

he says nothing except this
phrase, again and again.

Adel--

NARRATOR: Captain
El-Habashi fights

the disorientation
of 0 gravity,

desperately trying to
return to the cockpit.

An American journalist
living in France

studied this
flight extensively.

16 seconds after the dive
began when the airplane had

gone into 0 g and into negative
g and was at an extreme angle,

the captain somehow made his
way back into the cockpit.

How he did that physically,
I will never know.

NARRATOR: Warning signals
indicate the dive is exceeding

the maximum speed
allowed for the plane,

taking them to 99% of
the speed of sound.

This far past the
plane's design limits.

The stresses on the airframe
are pulling it apart.

What's happening?

I rely on God.

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: Captain
El-Habashi pulls back

hard on his control column.

Then he tries to use the
engines to power their way out

of the dive by pushing
forward on the throttles,

but he gets nothing.

What?

You shut off the engines?

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: Desperate, the
captain deploys the speed

brakes, panels standing up
from the wings in an effort

to slow the dive.

The dive is slowing
back from the brink

of the sound barrier.

The dive goes on but
the nose is coming up.

In just seconds,
they go from 0 g

to double the force of gravity.

Captain El-Habashi
struggles to level the plane

and pulls back hard
on the control column.

The 767 dive begins to slow.

Pull with me.

I rely on God.

You shut off the engine.

Pull.

NARRATOR: In seconds, the
engines stop and the power

goes off, plunging the
aircraft into darkness.

Here, the cockpit voice
recorder and the flight data

recorder stop.

No one knows what
happened in the plane

during the next two minutes,
but radar tracks its path.

The plane is climbing again.

Up from about 16,000
feet to over 24,000 feet

as the aircraft
structure is weakened

by the strains of abnormal
speeds and maneuvers.

Pull!

NARRATOR: Then
the aircraft falls

into another terrifying dive.

Stressed beyond
endurance, the left engine

is ripped from the plane.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) EqyptAir
990 New York Center.

EqyptAir 990, if
you copy, New York--

NARRATOR: At 1:50
AM, flight 990

disappears from radar
screens, crashing

into the surface of the
Atlantic Ocean over 60 miles

off the American coast.

Coast Guard search and
rescue get a call at 2:15 AM.

A plane has disappeared
and Coast Guard vessels

are called to the scene.

In Heliopolis, a Cairo suburb,
Captain El-Habashi's daughter

can only guess what her
father went through.

Can you imagine, if you
have a beloved one, a father,

a daughter or a brother, facing
all the horrors of finding

himself falling
from 36,000 feet

suddenly, trying
to save his life,

his colleagues' lives, the
people, the passengers.

We located a
significant debris field

and that we have concentrated
our search efforts since then

on about a 36 square mile
of area about 50 miles South

of Nantucket.

NARRATOR: At the
end of October,

the waters of the
North Atlantic

are so cold that
normally, life expectancy

is about 5 to 6 hours.

In Cairo, relief captain Raouf
Noureldin's daughter, Mai,

clung to hope for her father.

I was talking
to myself, trying

to convince myself that my
father was not on this plane.

And if he's on this plane, he
will be safe because my father

was an Air Force pilot.

He had a very good experience.

And I thought maybe if the
plane crashed, he will be able

to-- you know, to
be in a safe place

and to swim and
to go to any land.

NARRATOR: At the crash
site, only pieces are left.

Within hours,
authorities know there

is little hope for survivors.

COAST GUARD SPOKESPERSON:
We believe at this point

that it is in
everyone's best interest

to no longer
expect that we will

find survivors in this case.

NARRATOR: Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak reaches

out to his stricken nation.

This is the worst air
crash in Egypt's history.

I really was shocked.

It's a big tragedy for us.

And I give my condolences
to all the passengers,

to the families, the
families of the crews

who have been lost
in this tragedy,

and I have contact
with President Clinton

and other others overseas.

And he's giving good
support for trying

to find, investigate,
see what was the reason.

NARRATOR: The American
president would answer

his ally with a commitment.

And I spoke earlier with
President Mubarak of Egypt

today to express my
condolences and to assure him

that we would be
working together closely

until this matter is resolved.

We do not know what
caused this tragedy.

NARRATOR: In northern
Indiana, music historian

Jim Brokaw learned
what happened

to his father and stepmother.

One of the many
things that I felt

on that first horrible morning
was the sense that people all

over the world were
confronting the same horrible

circumstances
that I was and had

the same sense of helplessness
and disorientation that I did.

NARRATOR: Grieving
relatives arrive

at Newport, Rhode Island.

They will seek answers
and share comfort.

There were 100
Americans, 89 Egyptians,

21 Canadians, and 7 victims of
other nationalities on board.

They all ask, what
caused this tragedy?

Teams of investigators will
pursue that question for years

to come.

We are beginning what
may be a long investigation

and we are prepared
to do what it

takes to find the answers to
the questions we are seeking.

NARRATOR: In Washington, Greg
Phillips from the National

Transportation Safety Board
leads the investigation

into this crash.

From the very
beginning, we realized

it was a very difficult case.

The airplane was in cruise,
nighttime, out over the ocean

and went into the ocean.

There was just a little
bit of floating debris,

but we had to
recover the airplane

from the bottom of the ocean
to begin the investigation.

NARRATOR: The job of finding
the black boxes would be

difficult. The water
is over 200 feet deep

and the force of the crash
has smashed the locator

beacons off the boxes.

Nine days after the crash, the
US Navy's unmanned submarine

deep drone recovers the
first of the two black boxes,

the flight data
recorder which stores

information about what the
aircraft and its systems

were doing.

Four days later, the second
black box, the cockpit voice

recorder lands in the deck
and is carefully transported

to the NTSB laboratories.

The cockpit voice
recorder captures

all sounds in the cockpit
for the last 30 minutes

of the flight.

The recovery of the
cockpit voice recorder

provided a gripping
and bewildering picture

of the last minutes
of a disaster.

Investigators hope that
this is the key to unlocking

the mystery of flight 990.

Translating the Arabic
spoken in the cockpit

is a top priority
NTSB headquarters.

The cockpit voice
recorder was a good quality.

It was easily usable
and translatable

by the investigation team.

The cockpit voice recorder
is always just a piece

of the investigation that
fits many other pieces

of the puzzle.

NARRATOR: On major
investigations

like the crash of
EqyptAir 990, the NTSB

works routinely with the FBI.

The physical evidence
has to be managed in case

it's needed in court.

Former FBI Assistant
Director Lew

Schiliro is a veteran
investigator and no stranger

to air crashes.

By the time
EqyptAir occurred,

we were fairly adept at
looking at airline disasters,

particularly with the
view of developing

whether or not a terrorist
incident or criminal act

had occurred.

NARRATOR: The FBI
checked for evidence

of bombs, terrorists,
or terrorist targets

on the flight.

LEW SCHILIRO: Trying
to determine luggage

against the passenger list
and whether or not there

was anything unusual
in the manifest,

whether or not the people
that loaded the plane

could recall
anything that would

have caused them concern.

We reviewed surveillance
tapes to indicate

whether or not anything unusual
was loaded on that plane.

We had no evidence at all
of any explosive device

on board EgyptAir that night.

NARRATOR: At the NTSB,
American investigators

found no failure
in the aircraft

from studying the
flight data recorder.

But Egypt's members of
the investigation team

insisted that not all
the evidence was in.

Much of the wreckage was still
in storage in Rhode Island.

They hope the cause of the
crash can be found here.

Egypt's representatives search
for any possible mechanical

cause for the crash.

While they search, other
theories are pursued.

A study into the causes
of airline crashes

published in January 2001
points to pilot error

as the cause for 1/3
of these accidents.

It also finds a strong
connection between bad weather

and pilot error.

But the crash of EqyptAir
990 occurred in clear weather

with veteran pilots.

What happened in the cockpit
would divide the investigation

and fuel an international
controversy.

The investigation into
the crash of Flight 990

develops in two directions,
mechanical failure

and pilot action.

Rumors swirl about what or
who may have caused the crash.

One of the key
questions, why was

the relief first officer
in the cockpit hours

earlier than expected?

He was supposed to
replace Adel Anwar

much later in the flight.

Tell you something--

NARRATOR: But in Cairo,
Adel Anwar's older brother,

Tarek, has no problem with Adel
being replaced in the cockpit.

INTERPRETER: Suppose I
am was one of my friends

and we are traveling
in a car and he asks me

if he can drive instead of me.

Is this going to be a problem?

For example, if Adel
didn't get enough sleep

and Captain Gameel
told him, let

me fly the plane instead
of you and you go rest,

there is no problem with that.

NARRATOR: When the
actions in the cockpit

are put together with
a voice recordings,

a timeline emerges
that indicates

a series of initially
bewildering decisions.

I'll be back to you.

NARRATOR: The timeline reveals
that after Captain El-Habashi

leaves the cockpit, there's a
series of sounds whose meaning

can only be guessed at.

Control it.

NARRATOR: And then the
relief first officer

disconnects the autopilot.

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: Released from
the autopilot's control,

the plane starts to descend,
rolling to the left.

Egypt's experts described
Al-Batouti's decision

to shut off the autopilot
as a possible reaction

to an unusual movement
of the aircraft,

prompting him to
take manual control.

However, the leader of the
NTSB investigation disagrees.

We found no reason
for the autopilot

to be disconnected by a fault
or failure in the airplane.

NARRATOR: After switching
off the autopilot,

Al-Batouti pushes his
control column forward,

lowering the elevator panels
so the flight data recorder

indicates to the NTSB.

Then he pulls the throttles
back, reducing engine power.

This causes the plane to dive.

Egypt's investigators
say Al-Batouti was not

trying to crash
the plane and there

may have been an
elevator failure

which he could not overcome.

Strangely, there is no
discussion of a problem

on the cockpit tape.

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: When the captain made
his way back to the cockpit,

he asked the first
officer what was going on

and never received a response.

As former director
of aviation safety,

Bernard Loeb oversaw
all air crash

investigations at the NTSB.

It is well understood that
in a cockpit, a jet transport

cockpit or virtually any
airline in the world, when

a captain comes in
and asks a question,

the first officer will respond.

When the captain
asked his questions,

Batouti did not respond.

NARRATOR: Fighting the dive,
pulling his column back all

the way, the captain
cannot gain complete

control of the elevator.

So he tries the throttles
to power out of the dive.

You shut off the engines?

NARRATOR: He was
unaware that seconds

earlier, the first
officer had shut

off the fuel to the engines.

Egypt's experts say
that Al-Batouti may have

been acting out of caution.

The flight data show that a low
oil pressure warning appeared.

That can mean the
engines have flamed out.

The captain may have
then ordered the fuel

to the engines shut off
as part of the procedure

for restarting the engines.

CAPTAIN EL-HABASHI:
Shut the engines.

It's shut.

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: The NTSB considers
this possible scenario

as well.

The engines shut off,
a two-engine airplane

at night over the water.

We couldn't understand any
reason why any emergency could

cause you to shut all of
the power of available

to the airplane
when you're heading

away from the nearest airport.

NARRATOR: Foremost among
the Egyptian investigator

scenarios was a tragic
elevator failure.

You have real problems
in the elevators.

NARRATOR: In Washington, at the
National Transportation Safety

Board, analysis of the
flight data recorder

indicates that Captain
El-Habashi was pulling back

on his column to
make the plane climb,

while flight officer
Al-Batouti appears

to be pushing forward
on his column,

making the plane go down.

Elevators work simply.

Pull back on the column,
and the elevators

go up, lifting the plane.

Push forward, and the
elevator panels move down

to make the plane descend.

They work together.

But in this case, they are
going in opposite directions.

What happened to
the elevator shaft?

NARRATOR: Egypt's experts argue
that this crash could have

been caused by a failure
in the elevator assembly,

producing an elevator hard
over, a jam in the elevator

controls, which locked
them in the down position,

plunging the aircraft into
an uncontrollable dive.

I rely on God.

NARRATOR: They stated that
first officer Al-Batouti was

working to regain
control of the elevators

and added that he and
Captain El-Habashi

were working together.

If there had been
an elevator failure,

it could explain the first
officer's unusual performance

in the cockpit.

CAPTAIN EL-HABASHI: Pull!

NARRATOR: Supporting
evidence is

found when analyzing
fragments of the wreckage

in the hangar at Rhode Island.

Here, investigators made a
remarkable discovery, three

unusually sheared rivets.

These tiny parts play an
important role in the Boeing

767 elevator assembly.

Egypt's consulting experts
determined that the scratches

in the metal surfaces
of these rivets

show that they were sheared off
in two different directions.

One direction could be
attributed to the crash.

The second could indicate
that the break occurred

before the crash, and
so may have indicated

a jam in the elevators.

Egypt's experts brought
this to the attention

of the Federal Aviation
Administration, America's

civil aviation regulator.

Alarmed by the
potential risks, the FAA

ordered all bell
crank rivets to be

inspected on every Boeing
767 in use around the world.

The inspections uncovered 136
sheared rivets and 34 aircraft

were grounded until
the fault was fixed.

The FAA said the
problem could result

in loss of controllability
of the airplane.

Egypt's investigators had
uncovered a credible scenario,

that sheared rivets in
the elevator assembly

of the Boeing 767 indicated
a jam that could have

caused an elevator hard over
that the pilots could

not overcome.

NTSB investigator Greg
Phillips disagreed.

Those are by design
for the Boeing 767.

The controls can be split.

They're designed that way
in case one of the surfaces,

the control surfaces fails
so that whoever is still

in control of the airplane
or can control the airplane

with a failed elevator.

NARRATOR: Before he became
an investigative writer,

William Langewiesche was a
commercial airline pilot.

Flight 990's maneuvers are
programmed into a flight

simulator in order
for Langewiesche

to test the pilot's reactions.

WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE: To see
an airplane going so wildly

into a dive, to see the
altimeters unwinding

at that speed,
to hear the horns

and warning signals going off--

--is frightening.

NARRATOR: Whatever
the cause of the dive,

Langewiesche tries a variety of
responses to recover from it.

WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE: To
sit in a 767 or any airplane

going out of control and
do nothing for 15 seconds,

15 seconds is a long time.

It's inconceivable.

But I did it.

And even in 15 seconds,
even waiting 15 seconds,

I was able, really reacting
as almost as any student pilot

would, to recover from the
dive before the airplane

exceeded its limits.

NARRATOR: No Boeing
767 has suffered

from an elevator
hard over and dive

before or since the crash.

The aviation experts
hired by Egypt

developed a wide
range of scenarios,

setting a fault in
the elevator assembly

as a possible
cause of the crash.

GREG PHILLIPS: Based on the
data, the information we have

from the testing that was
done is a group effort

with all the best thinking
everybody had at the time,

we could not make
this airplane do what

it did with any of
the failure scenarios

that were presented to us.

NARRATOR: When mechanical
failure scenarios were

exhausted and
terrorism was excluded,

the FBI continued to dig into
the life of first officer

Gameel Al-Batouti.

Less than three weeks after
the disaster, news media

report that in the final
moments before the crash,

Al-Batouti said, I
have made my decision.

I put my faith in God,
causing many to believe

he might be an Islamic
militant bent on destruction.

But the translation
was incorrect.

From our initial review
of Al-Batouti's background,

he was a fairly
religious person,

but I don't think we had
anything to determine that his

religious beliefs were radical
or beyond what would have been

a normal religious person.

Tawakilt ala Allah.

NARRATOR: What had Al-Batouti
said and what does it mean?

Tawakilt ala Allah.

NARRATOR: Egyptian
professor, Amin

Bonnah teaches
Arabic at Georgetown

University in Washington.

Tawakkaltu means I
depend, I rely, I trust.

And ala, on.

And Allah is God.

Ala Tawakkaltu Allah,
on God, I rely.

People use it when they start a
trip, when they start driving,

going back home.

We sat Tawakkaltu ala Allah.

It's a very positive phrase.

So it's not the kind of
phrase that anyone would

be using before
they commit a crime

or before they commit suicide.

Tawakilt ala Allah.

NARRATOR: To say this common
phrase once was normal,

but Al-Batouti
repeated it 11 times.

Tawakilt ala Allah.

CAPTAIN EL-HABASHI:
What's happening?

Tawakilt ala Allah.

I expect that Captain
Al-Batouti would say there is

a fire in the engines,
something stopped,

or I can see something
is hitting the plane,

anything like that.

But he go on and is endlessly
saying, Tawakkaltu ala Allah.

This is not logic.

NARRATOR: For the
Al-Batouti family,

their grief would be
compounded by the need

to defend their father's honor.

INTERPRETER: When
he died, the one

thing we had to reassure us
was that he had died honorably.

And now they're trying to
take that away from us.

NARRATOR: Chairman
Jim Hall allowed

that it could have
been a criminal act

rather than an accident.

The investigation could end up
in the hands of the FBI alone.

It is only prudent for the
National Transportation Safety

Board to consult with
these experts and officials

to fully evaluate
this information prior

to any final decision on
whether the responsibility

for this investigation should
transfer to the Federal

Bureau of Investigation.

NARRATOR: Egypt's
President Hosni Mubarak,

formerly commander of
the Egyptian Air Force

had known Gameel
Al-Batouti, according

to his nephew Waleeb.

Mubarak asked
President Bill Clinton

to intercede to keep the crash
from becoming an FBI matter.

Since the crash, Walid
Al-Batouti, nephew of Gameel,

has become the Al-Batouti
family spokesman.

WALID AL-BATOUTI: You have to
understand that the highest

rank in this country, which
is the Egyptian President,

was an Air Force pilot.

And he was asked, and he says,
according to my experience,

it's in the tail unit.

Something happened there.

It's not suicide.

It could be either a mechanical
failure, a manufacturing

failure, something.

NARRATOR: In America, the FBI
focuses on Gameel Al-Batouti

and the question of motive.

LEW SCHILIRO: He was 59
years old, approaching 60,

had never risen above the
rank of first officer.

That may have caused him some
animosity towards EgyptAir.

Had some personal
issues in his own life

in terms of financial--

some issues in terms of his
family members being sick,

needing medical attention.

They've used the
daughter in the accusation

as they said she was
sick and that's why

maybe he committed suicide.

Before we go to this, I
will give you the reason.

First, the doctors
have already--

on that particular flight,
have already told him

that your daughter is going
positive with the medication

and everything is going fine.

And he was extremely happy.

He was so excited to come back.

NARRATOR: Gameel Al-Batouti
was bringing his daughter's

medical records back
with him that night,

among other things.

OK, he bought
tires for his son.

And an argument went on the
phone between him and his son.

INTERPRETER: My father called
me to come to the airport

because he could not carry
all four tires himself.

He says, listen,
I carry your tires

all the way from the states.

You don't want to come and
carry it from the airport?

It's a very natural thing.

A man is going to commit
suicide, why would he do this?

NARRATOR: In New York, the FBI
continue their investigation

at the Hotel Pennsylvania where
EqyptAir had a block booking

of rooms for their crews.

LEW SCHILIRO: The
investigation that the FBI was

able to do as far as Batouti's
background probably spanned

a period of about a year or
so, at least from the records

that we were able to obtain
and from the interviews

we did at the various
places that he stayed.

So he did have, I
think, a propensity

to engage in behavior with some
of the hotel people in terms

of sexual misconduct--

Hey, pretty lady,
where did you get to?

--which, you know,
at the time, really

appeared to be totally
out of the realm

of what was normal for a
person of that status to do.

NARRATOR: A husband
and father of five,

Gameel Al-Batouti was
notorious for harassing

female guests and hotel staff.

I'm in the hotel too.

You come to my room.

NARRATOR: The FBI learned that
two years before the crash,

two young women reported that
he called them on their hotel

room phone, telling them
to look out the window

across the courtyard.

You
have a good time too.

NARRATOR: When they
did, they saw Al-Batouti

exposing himself, and
reported the incident

to hotel security.

His provocative
behavior continued.

A hotel maid told the
FBI that the night

before the crash of
EqyptAir 990, Al-Batouti

had sexually
harassed her again.

Let me tell you something.

No, I want to talk
to you because, look,

I'll give you $100 if
you just come to my room.

- I'm not here for that.
- Oh, sure.

I'm here to work.

Just leave me alone!

Don't be like that.

NARRATOR: When the maid
reported the approach,

another addition was
made to the hotel

record of sexual harassment
of guests and staff

by Al-Batouti.

The allegation of the
hotel, as far as they said,

it happened way
before, not one day

before the flight, not
one day before the flight

as has been mentioned.

NARRATOR: The hotel
maid told the FBI

the incident took place
on October 29, 1999,

the day before the flight.

Three months after
the FBI began

investigating Al-Batouti,
an EgyptAir flight

landed in London.

The plane's captain
requested political asylum

in the United Kingdom.

He claimed to have
information about the cause

of the crash of
EqyptAir 990 and he

feared reprisals in Egypt.

Captain Hamdi Taha was
a colleague of Gameel

Al-Batouti's, and he was
walking away from his wife,

his family, and his country.

The FBI sent a special agent.

And along with a British
security officer,

he interviewed Captain Taha.

Were you aware of
Al-Batouti displaying sexually

inappropriate behavior?

Yes.

This is very important.

I heard it from
pilots who I trust.

Batouti got into trouble
for sexual misbehavior

in New York with maids and
following women and so on.

The airline tolerated
this for a while.

And they told him
several times,

maybe you can get away
with this, normally.

But this is America.

You represent our country.

You cannot do these things.

NARRATOR: Captain Taha's
information was second hand,

but his description
of Al-Batouti meeting

with the airline's chief
pilot was intriguing.

Hatem Rushdy went to
see Batouti the night

they took Flight 990.

They had a meeting
in the hotel.

He told him that what he had
done could not be covered up

and something had to be done.

The flight back to
Cairo from New York

would be his last flight.

Gameel, we go back
many years together,

but this will be your last
flight to the United States.

He would not be flying
to America any more.

So I think that what
happened was this.

He must have said to
himself, if this is going

to be my last flight,
it will be hot Hatem

Rushdy's last flight also.

LEW SCHILIRO: Certainly
within various corporations

where people bring
weapons into the office

and attempt to take revenge
against people that they feel

have aggrieved them,
perhaps because he

felt that EqyptAir had been the
cause of some of his issues.

And unfortunately,
in this case,

it was the kind of office that
was flying at 33,000 feet.

NARRATOR: The FBI provides
Taha's interviews to the NTSB.

Egyptian officials ask
for another EgyptAir pilot

to be interviewed.

Mohamed Badrawi had known
Al-Batouti for 40 years.

Interviewed at the
NTSB, he described

discussing with Captain
Rushdy what to do

about Al-Batouti's behavior.

Do you know if Hatem
Rushdy was aware of this,

the situation with Batouti?

Well, of course, he knew.

But he pretended not
to know, I think,

because Hatem Rushdy
is the chief pilot--

NARRATOR: Badrawi
confirms that Hatem

Rushdy is upset about
Albert's harassment

of women at the hotel.

So Badrawi takes Rushdy's
concerns to his old friend.

He didn't listen
to you, what did you

tell him was going to happen?

MOHAMED BADRAWI:
Nothing much, really.

See, he was on his way out.

We don't normally touch people
when they're approaching 60.

I know.

I know.

I'm not saying that you
are doing something wrong.

They are saying that you're
doing something wrong.

Well, I know
you are my friend.

MOHAMED BADRAWI: Well,
we have a little patience

and then they're out.

NARRATOR: Badrawi would plead
with Rushdy to be patient

with his old
friend, considering

that Al-Batouti only
had three months

to go before retirement.

Are you out of your mind?

We have been in the
Air Force for 40 years.

All he needs is a
few more months.

NARRATOR: Badrawi's interview
confirmed that Rushdy did

believe Al-Batouti's behavior
had to be dealt with,

and he denied Taha's claim
of a meeting between the two

on the night of the crash.

But Captain Taha was not done.

He had another
compelling story to add.

Taha revealed to the
FBI how EqyptAir briefed

its pilots about the crash.

When they had done the
transcripts of the cockpit

voice recorder, the
EgyptAir chief of operations

called all flight crew to
a special meeting in Cairo

and told us the
facts, just the facts,

no commentary, no explanation
of any technical problem.

He did not say anything,
but all we pilots realized

that this was not an accident.

And then he told us not to
talk to anyone about it.

Don't talk to your family.

Don't talk on the phone.

Don't talk to each
other, he told us.

All of us realized that Batouti
had done this on purpose.

NARRATOR: For the American
families involved,

this was a case of 216
murders and one suicide.

In Egypt, large
close-extended families

with a strong
religious faith deny

that Egyptians commit suicide.

The story has many sides.

It has to do with religion.

It has to do with beliefs.

It has to do with the culture.

I think until today, still
in the Egyptian culture,

people don't believe that
Muslims or that Egyptians

or that people coming from
that culture commit suicide.

NARRATOR: Cultural differences
were not the only impediments

to this investigation.

LEW SCHILIRO: One
of the difficulties

that we did have was that
when we went over to Egypt

and attempted to really
get into his background,

it became a very
sensitive issue

for the Egyptian government.

NARRATOR: FBI efforts to
learn about Al-Batouti's

personal life and family
relations would be stymied.

It became almost to the
point where we were never

really able to
develop all the things

that we needed to get at.

NARRATOR: Finally,
on March 21, 2002,

after a nearly $10
million investigation

over two years and five months,
the NTSB publishes its report

and determines that--

READER: The probable cause
of the EgyptAir Flight 990

accident is 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.

NARRATOR: The Egyptian
Civil Aviation

Authority responded
angrily, and their response

read in part,

READER: It is obvious
that the NTSB has not

done the type of
professional accident

investigation expected by
the Egyptian government.

NARRATOR: The NTSB's former
director of aviation safety

takes exception to
the Egyptian view.

What was unprofessional
was the insistence

by the Egyptians in the
face of irrefutable evidence

to anyone who knows anything
about investigating airplane

accidents and who knows
anything about aerodynamics

and airplanes was the fact
that this airplane was

intentionally flown
into the ocean.

No scenario that the
Egyptians came up with

or that we came up with
in which there were

some sort of mechanical failure
in the elevator control system

would either match
the flight profile

or was a situation in which the
airplane was not recoverable.

NARRATOR: Like many
of his countrymen,

the loyal nephew cannot
believe his uncle

Gameel was a mass murderer.

This is a simple plane crash.

It was put and made
like this for no reason.

It shows that it's a cover up.

NARRATOR: Greg
Phillips takes pride

in having thoroughly
investigated

every lead and every scenario.

GREG PHILLIPS: When we sign on
to be accident investigators,

we do it with the
idea that we're

going to keep the next
one from happening,

not to cover up one that
did because of whatever

reason may be given to us.

I've never known
that to happen.

I've never even known it
to come close to happening.

NARRATOR: There continue to
be differing perspectives

on the crash of
EqyptAir Flight 990

and unanswered
questions remain for

broken and damaged families.

For many of them, answers to
how and why this plane crashed

will forever be a
painful mystery.