‘Decision’ Phrase Not on EgyptAir Tape

WASHINGTON — The suspicious words “I made my decision now” are not on the cockpit voice recorder of EgyptAir Flight 990 after all, a government official said.

On Wednesday, a federal law enforcement official said that just before the autopilot was turned off and the Boeing 767’s fatal dive began, the crew member in the co-pilot’s seat was recorded as saying: “I made my decision now. I put my faith in God’s hands.”

But on Friday, a government official said the first of those sentences--the one about making a decision--is not on the tape. It apparently arose from confusion among investigators, the official said.

This official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, could not say whether there was some other prefatory sentence or differing translation. Experts went over the tape last week and electronically enhanced it to prepare an exact transcript.

(The Times mentioned the “I made my decision now” quote in its Nov. 18 story on the crash, attributing it to Associated Press.)

Despite this, the head of the team investigating the Oct. 31 crash said Friday that officials believe the crash may have been deliberate.

As they looked at wreckage and other evidence from the crash, “our investigators began to feel that the crash might--and I emphasize might--be the result of a deliberate act,” Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters.

The New York-to-Cairo flight crashed off Massachusetts’ Nantucket Island, killing all 217 people aboard, including two pilots and two relief pilots.