A Scattered Community Unites in Grief

It’s a popular flight with Egyptians living in Southern California--a convenient connection between their scattered enclaves here and their native land.

So it was only natural that many of Los Angeles’ growing Egyptian community felt a personal link to Sunday’s crash of Cairo-bound EgyptAir Flight 990.

“It’s shocking news for all of us who’ve taken that trip. I was so sad I cried this morning,” said Dr. Ayda Abuelkhair, a Los Angeles family physician who was worshiping Sunday at the Holy Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Highland Park.

As fate would have it, Abuelkhair felt the connection more than most. Her husband had planned on taking the EgyptAir flight, she said. But it was full, and he couldn’t get on and traveled to Cairo on Sunday instead by Deutsche Lufthansa.

The tragedy served to unite in grief a sometimes fractious community.

The local Egyptian community includes prominent professionals--such as recent Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ahmed H. Zewail of Caltech, who has retained close ties to his homeland and announced plans to donate part of his $960,000 prize to his high school in Alexandria, Egypt.

But the estimated 40,000 Egyptians spread across Southern California are split along religious lines--Muslims and Coptic Christians--as are their countrymen back home.

Here, religion serves as the center of many Egyptians’ lives. So services on Sunday were filled with prayers for the 217 aboard the downed flight.

“It is a sad day for all of us. We extend our condolences to all on board the ill-fated flight. The Americans, non-Americans, the Muslims and the non-Muslims” said Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Los Angeles-based Islamic Center of Southern California.

Muslims at the Los Angeles center bowed to the northeast--the shortest direction to Mecca--and chanted “Allah Akbar” [“God is greater”] in a prayer to the dead following the main midday service.

Present at the prayer service was Dr. Mohsen N. Hamza, a Beverly Hills neurologist, whose wife is a niece of the downed jetliner’s co-pilot, Gameel el-Bitash. Hamza said el-Bitash, 59, lived in Cairo but spent much time in Los Angeles and was within five months of retirement.

“He was a gentleman, and a good person, God bless him,” said Hamza.

Families, Friends Fear the Worst

Among the passengers on Flight 990 was Sheila Jaffee, 63, of Huntington Beach, who with her former husband Melvin Jaffee owned the National Lumber and Supply Inc. The Fountain Valley-based chain of home-improvement centers encompassed 21 stores before competition drove it out of business.

Jaffee’s family declined to comment Sunday night but confirmed she was aboard the plane through their rabbi, Michael Mayersohn of Temple Beth David in Westminster.

Jaffee reportedly was taking a trip with two friends, but Mayersohn said he could not confirm those details.

“We can confirm she was on the plane with friends, but they’re not going to make any further comment,” Mayersohn said. Melvin Jaffee could not be reached.

Moataz Mohammed, an engineer from Irvine, confirmed late Sunday that he put his parents on the flight.

They had been in Orange County for a couple of weeks seeking medical treatment for Mohammed’s father, said Yassir Ibramim Fazaqa, the leader of the Orange County Islamic Foundation in Mission Viejo.

“The sad thing is that you expect that you are doing your parents good, giving them a healthier life and then something like this happens,” Fazaqa said.

He said Mohammed’s father had suffered from a long illness and had come to California for more treatment. After his health improved, he wanted to go back to Egypt to work, said Fazaqa.

Mohammed flew from Southern California to New York Sunday morning. Reached at his hotel room, Mohammed declined to comment, saying it was a “traumatic time” for him.

Mourad Yassa of Lakewood was also on the flight, confirmed his priest, Father Mauritius Mikhail of the St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Bellflower.

Yassa and his wife, Etedal Nakhla, had been agricultural engineers in Egypt and lived here only about a year, Mikhail said. The couple worked in a La Palma packing plant, where Yassa had been laid off. He was traveling back to Egypt to tend to business at the family’s apartment, the priest said.

Nakhla apparently had no inkling about her husband’s fate until she went to church Sunday and someone casually mentioned the air crash. Witnesses said she fainted, but was revived and brought to LAX by friends to learn of her husband’s fate.

As word of the crash circulated, about 16 distraught relatives of four of the passengers made their way into Los Angeles airport’s Tom Bradley International Terminal to seek news of loved ones.

Two men were crying, a third wrapped his arms around his head, and a somber woman extended a hand saying, “Please, no media.”

Relatives of victims were grasping for information and wrestling with the decision of what to do, said Dr. Bonnita Wirth, a volunteer mental health counselor summoned to the airport by federal officials early Sunday morning.

Many of the relatives were torn between staying here or going to the family assistance center being set up in Rhode Island, she said.

“They want to be as close to the disaster, so they can feel they can be part of it. But they also feel obligated to stay here and comfort other family members.”

Wirth said family support services will be available at the airport 24 hours a day, until all the families of victims are contacted.

Along with the Red Cross, which was prepared to offer services to crash victims’ families, Islamic leaders also scrambled Sunday morning to try to establish a Los Angeles support service for victims’ families, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Southern California.

Word of the tragedy hit the Egyptian community especially hard because the flight was the frequent lifeline for expatriates homesick for their roots. Twice a week--on Thursdays and Saturdays--EgyptAir jetliners traveled from Los Angeles to Cairo. Often, they were full.

Cherif Youssef, 48, of Encino, said he returned from a several-week stay in Cairo just four days ago.

“It’s preferred by a lot of people. It’s got a very good reputation,” the electrical engineer said of EgyptAir. He added the airline was particularly popular with older Egyptians because its employees “speak Arabic and they’re very helpful.”

Henry Mansoor, who leads Egyptian tours from Los Angeles, said the crash came at the beginning of the busiest travel season for the Middle East nation.

“The winter season is the tourist season for Egypt. It starts around the middle of October,” he said.

Inside the Holy Virgin Mary church, members attending a three-hour plus service recited a liturgy that included a prayer for travelers.

Egyptians “always pray for those traveling. And today they need those prayers more than ever,” explained worshiper Dr. Elhamy Khali, 63, who over the years has taken the flight numerous times.

A Day of Prayer and Waiting

At services at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in West Los Angeles--the first such Christian Egyptian Church in the U.S.--members expressed relief when it appeared that none of their relatives had booked a seat on the doomed flight.

“I haven’t received any phone calls . . . . That’s a good sign,” said Father Markos Hanna.

In the Muslim faith, a prayer for the dead is known as a Janazah prayer. Around Los Angeles, mosques and Islamic centers said the prayer “in absentia” for those killed in the crash, said Magdy Eletreby, an Anaheim software company owner who heads the Islamic Center of Southern California.

Soon, though, the day turned to one of waiting in places like Glendale, the Westside and Orange County as members of the region’s Egyptian community wondered who was lost on the flight.

“I fear the worst for my friend. He asked me if I wanted to go on a trip this weekend to Egypt and now I cannot get through to his wife,” said Egyptian-born engineer Khali Khali of Los Angeles. “I pray he’s not on board.”

Khali, 55, a Los Angeles County building and safety division employee, said he has taken the EgyptAir flight many times and always considered it safe.

“Now this has happened, there is going to be a lot of finger-pointing. I hope they get a conclusion to the cause fast,” he said.

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Times staff writers Rich Connell, Scott Gold, Meg James, Karen Alexander, Monte Morin, George Ramos, Bob Pool and Mireta Gurgenidze contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Final Minutes

Authorities said there was no-distress call from the pilots before the Boeing 767 plummeted to the sea in two minutes from its crusising altitude of 33,000 feet.

1:19 a.m.: Flight 990 departs JFK airport

1:47 a.m.: Pilots make last radio communication with controllers.

1:50 a.m.: Plane begins descent from 33,000 feet.

Last radar signal received shows plane drops 14,000 feet in 36 seconds.

Sources: FAA, Associated Press

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More Inside on EgyptAir Crash

* ANXIOUS WAITING--There was little in the way of information or comfort at Cairo airport for loved ones of passengers aboard EgyptAir Flight 990. A10

* SHARED HISTORY--The doomed aircraft came off Boeing Co.’s assembly line right before another 767 jet that crashed eight years ago in a Thailand jungle. A10

* PRAYER SERVICE--Relatives of those killed in the crash shared their grief at a Muslim gathering place in New York. A10

* FINDING DEBRIS--A graphic shows how a sonar-equipped Navy ship will assist in the search and recovery effort. A11

* EARLIER FLIGHT--A veteran pilot said the jetliner “was completely perfect” when he flew it to Los Angeles on Saturday. A12