FBI Playing Key Role in EgyptAir Crash Inquiry

The FBI is vigorously investigating the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 even though the National Transportation Safety Board continues to have the lead role in the probe, according to federal law enforcement officials.

Hundreds of federal agents and other experts in Washington, Cairo and elsewhere are working closely with the safety board and Egyptian officials to understand more about the airplane, the crew, the passengers and those who came into contact with the aircraft as it made its journey from Los Angeles to New York.

The other side of the investigation--whether some so-far hidden mechanical failure brought down the Boeing 767--is necessarily in a go-slow mode for now. Safety board investigators can pore over maintenance records and further refine data from on-board recorders, but almost all the physical evidence is buried under 250 feet of water and silt at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the plane made its deadly plunge about 60 miles off the coast of Massachusetts.

Months and millions of dollars probably will be required to bring up enough wreckage to confirm or overturn strong preliminary evidence from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder that indicates nothing mechanically wrong with the plane. Although they will look, investigators privately doubt they will find what they sometimes call the “eureka piece” that would turn the investigation around.

Meanwhile, the logical course for the probe is to look into the backgrounds, records and activities of the humans involved with the plane--something the FBI is trained to do.

Given the strong Egyptian government objections that were lodged when the NTSB prepared to transfer jurisdiction for the Oct. 31 crash to the FBI, it actually benefits the bureau to have the NTSB remain in the lead role, at least for now, officials said. The reason: Egyptian protestations over the bureau’s turning the probe into a criminal investigation could have blocked the detail-oriented background work that needs to be done in Egypt, U.S. law enforcement officials said.

“Typically, the bureau wants to elbow their way into the lead position, but they are being real sensible,” one U.S. official said of the FBI. “It is an institutionally mature reaction to not technically have the lead in order that they might be better able to do their work.”

In Egypt, investigations into the backgrounds of all of the pilots and crew are being undertaken by Egyptian authorities at the FBI’s request, officials said. In Washington, officials from the NTSB, the FBI and Egypt are working on completing an agreed-upon transcript of the flight’s voice recorder.

“People need to understand this is not at a standstill. We are doing everything that we need to do in this case,” FBI spokesman Jim Davis said. “The titular head of this investigation . . . really has no impact at all on the work that agents are doing in the field. The interviews are being conducted, the evidence is being reviewed, and we have got agents working with the Egyptian authorities.”

Having the safety board remain in charge has another benefit: its worldwide reputation for technical competence and honesty. And with certain glaring exceptions--including a bitter dispute with the French government over what brought down a French-built airliner in Indiana in 1994--the safety board is also viewed as fair.

Law enforcement officials said their focus remains on co-pilot Gameel Batouty, who they believe entered the cockpit sometime after takeoff and intentionally pushed the plane into a dive while the captain was absent.

That judgment is based heavily on a series of suspicious actions by Batouty, officials said, including switching off the plane’s autopilot after apparently saying a prayer repeatedly.

While his prayer in Arabic--”I have put my faith in God’s hands”--has played a role in the probe, it is less significant, officials said, than the actions he took in the cockpit. What remains under intense review, law enforcement officials said, is why Batouty, the father of five and a longtime pilot, might have deliberately taken the actions that led to his death and that of the 216 others on board.