Pilot Says He Has Information on EgyptAir Crash Off U.S.

It was the latest twist in the investigation of the puzzling crash of an EgyptAir jetliner last year. An EgyptAir pilot flew to London on Friday and asked for asylum at Heathrow Airport--claiming that he possessed knowledge that could shed light on the Oct. 31 demise of Flight 990.

But Egyptian officials lost no time Saturday trying to discredit the pilot, painting him as a disgruntled employee who could have no relevant information about the tragedy that killed 217 people.

It remains to be seen whether Capt. Hamdi Hanafi Taha knows anything about the crash. If he does, it could help end a three-month controversy surrounding the investigation.

Flight 990 took off from New York’s JFK International Airport and had reached cruising altitude about 40 minutes into a planned 11-hour flight when it began its plunge into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantucket Island.

In the days immediately after the crash, U.S. investigators built a theory, based on the cockpit voice and flight data recordings recovered from the ocean floor, that EgyptAir co-pilot Gamil Batouty deliberately disengaged the autopilot of the doomed aircraft, tilted its nose down and crashed it into the sea.

Egyptian authorities angrily rejected that scenario, insisting that there was not enough evidence to support the theory and that there must be another explanation, such as a mechanical problem or some kind of sabotage.

News that 33 Egyptian military officers were among the victims fueled rumors in Egypt that the plane might have been shot down.

The asylum plea by Taha was reported Saturday in a dispatch by Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency. It quoted the airline’s chairman, Mohammed Fahim Rayan, as saying that Taha, a 16-year veteran of the airline, had asked for asylum.

Later, British authorities confirmed that an Egyptian had sought asylum.

There was no immediate indication of when or where Taha might make his promised disclosures.

Rayan insisted that Taha could not have known anything about the crash, a sentiment echoed by a leader of the Egyptian Pilots Assn.

“This guy does not have any complete information about the plane,” said Ali Murad, who added that he could confirm only that Taha had been having “some problems with the operations department” of the airline.

For the families of the victims, word of Taha’s assertion led to expressions of frustration that no cause of the crash has been agreed upon by American and Egyptian investigators three months later.

“I want to know the truth. Not only me but everybody,” said Tarek Anwar, a brother of one of the pilots who died aboard Flight 990.

Taha’s request for asylum came after he flew a planeload of passengers to London as part of his normal duties.

In London, a spokesman for the Home Office, when asked if an EgyptAir pilot had requested asylum, said: “We can confirm an Egyptian national has sought entry into the U.K. And his application is being considered by the immigration services.” The spokesman refused to elaborate.

The plane Taha had flown to London returned to Cairo as scheduled early Saturday.

Taha’s wife told reporters in Cairo that she did not believe that her husband would have wanted asylum and that she expected him home soon. He had seemed anxious lately and was “very sad” after Flight 990 crashed, she said.