Initial Review of Flight 990 Recorder Yields Few Clues

A preliminary reading of the cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir Flight 990 failed to provide any conclusive evidence about what caused the mysterious Oct. 31 crash that killed all 217 aboard the jetliner, investigative sources said Sunday.

The sources said the recording failed to confirm either of two theories as to why the crash occurred--an attempted suicide by one of the pilots or a violent takeover attempt by someone else on the Boeing 767.

While declining to characterize the nature of the conversation between the two pilots--in Arabic--the sources said there did not appear to be any clear sounds of conflict.

“There was a problem. They were trying to solve it,” one of the sources said.

The sources said it is still too early to rule out any theories about what might have happened, including those involving a bomb or some other form of sabotage.

Evidence gleaned from the plane’s other “black box”--the flight data recorder--seemed to indicate that there were no mechanical problems aboard the jumbo jet before someone or something disconnected the autopilot as the plane cruised at 33,000 feet on a scheduled flight from New York to Cairo.

Eight seconds later, the plane began a gradually steepening dive that reached an angle of 40 degrees as the jetliner approached the speed of sound. Inexplicably, the plane’s engines were shut down.

During this dive, the plane dropped from 33,000 feet to 18,000 feet, according to information gathered from the flight data recorder. At that point, the plane’s electrical power apparently cut off. Neither recorder picked up any information after that.

Radar data show the jetliner dropped another 2,000 feet, climbed back up to 24,000 feet and then dived again, apparently beginning to break up before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean about 60 miles south of Massachusett’s Nantucket Island.

The two black boxes were recovered from the ocean floor by robot submarines working in water 260 feet deep.

The flight data recorder, found early last week, proved to be in relatively good condition.