-- Hawk (flyin@not.again), October 31, 1999.
767 Downgreenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
Just got word, at what was 2:15 until 15 minutes ago, now 1:15 Pacific time, 767 passenger plane down near Nantucket, Coast Guard searching.Will use this thread for updates...
(where is everybody - we get an extra hour of sleep?)!!
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999
Here we go again.Flight 800 gave us immediate travel restrictions due to terrorism, but when they concluded that it was mechanical problems and not terrorism, they somehow forgot to rescind the restrictions.
I wonder what exciting new laws, rules, regs, etc. we'll get as a result of *this* crash (in the same vicinity, no less) two months before end of year?
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
Sounds like quite the "red-eye" flight. Left JFK near midnight E.T.? bound for Egypt.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
Don't worry, It'll turn out the Pilot only had 60 hrs flying time and they'll all be cremated within 24 hours...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
I am not making this up: the talking head on Fox News just asked "Aviation Analyst Rob Roth" if it could be y2k related.(it's about 4:10 AM EST at the moment)
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
Hey Ron, WHAT a surprise.Just like the musical chairs going on with the DOW[n]...
Just like the POG JUST dropping below $300 in order to screw thousands of investors out of their money...
Nantucket,
The Bermuda Triangle of Clinton's goons...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Hey Andy...Egyptians love gold... bet there was a lot of gold on that plane.
Grab your snorkel - let's go!!
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
Jetliner missing off Nantucket Sunday, 31 October 1999 10:25 (GMT)(NOTE: FAA spokesman; clarifying time) (UPI Focus) Jetliner missing off Nantucket BOSTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) - The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a Boeing 767 operated by Egypt Air after the FAA reported the plane lost radar contact with flight controllers soon after taking off from JFK airport in New York. FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner said Flight 990 departed for Cairo at 1:19 a.m. EST and lost radar contact at 2 a.m., some 60 miles south of Nantucket. Senior Chief Richard Ross told UPI a Coast Guard jet and four cutters were searching for Flight 990. Officials had no information on what might have happened to the plane or how many passengers were on board. The aircraft's capacity is about 240 passengers. -- Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
What's that now, three or four in the last few years? be interesting to see the passenger list...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
"Planes will NOT be falling from the sky."hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........
(This is starting to get interesting.)
Payne Stewart's plane had an "unknown" weird problem.
The military plane just "vanished" and crashed. Unknown why.
This 767 just "vanished"....HMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
...then again, planes do crash.
I'll wait before making any further comment.
-- GoldReal (GoldReal@aol.com), October 31, 1999.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Cairo-bound Air Egypt passenger plane disappeared off the coast of Massachusetts early Sunday, prompting a massive search, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman told CNN.The Boeing 767 plane, Flight 990, left New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Egypt, the spokeswoman said.
Officials said the U.S. Coast Guard received a call at about 2:15 a.m. EST from the Federal Aviation Administration Center in New York saying they had lost radar contact with the plane.
The Air Egypt plane was on a scheduled flight out of New York's JFK Airport en route to Cairo.
Officials told CNN federal search teams were off the coast of Massachusetts, where the plane was last detected. Officials said the search was located about 62 miles off the coast of Nantucket Island.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
BOSTON (AP) - A Boeing 767 passenger plane disappeared about 60 miles south of Nantucket after taking off from JFK Airport in New York, the Coast Guard says. The FAA lost contact with the plane, which was headed to Cairo, Egypt, Coast Guard Lt. Rob Halsey said. He did not know what time the plane took off or when contact was lost.^MORE
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
HEYFLIGHT 990!!!!!!!
Fer crissakes', Flight 99-zero!!!!!!!
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (AFP) - An Egypt Air Boeing 767 airplane has gone missing after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy airport en route to Cairo, US media reported Sunday. CNN television reported that the airplane was missing off the coast of Massachussetts, south of the coastal town of Nantucket.The network reported that air traffic controllers were unable to make radio contact with the aircraft.
It was not immediately known how many passengers were aboard the plane.
Coast guard officials told the network that it has dispatched a jet and several vessels in search of the missing aircraft.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
-- Hawk (flyin@not.again), October 31, 1999.
197 pax...A major air and sea search has been launched after a Boeing 767 passenger plane bound for Egypt disappeared off the coast of Massachusetts.
The Egypt Air Flight 990 vanished from radar screens about 60 miles south of Nantucket after taking off from JFK Airport in New York.
The FAA lost contact with the plane, which was headed to Cairo, said Coastguard Lieutenant Rob Halsey. The aircraft was said to be carrying 197 passengers.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
)NANTUCKET, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a Boeing 767 passenger plane that disappeared from radar screens early Sunday off the coast of Massachusetts.
The Federal Aviation Administration lost contact with Egypt Air Flight 990 about 2:15 a.m. EST, about 60 miles (100 km) south/southeast of the island of Nantucket, Coast Guard officials said.
The plane took off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Cairo, Egypt.
Airline official confirmed that 197 passengers were on board the plane.
A Coast Guard jet and four vessels are searching the area.
"What we have right now is, we weren't able to establish contact," Coast Guard Lt. Rob Halsey said. "They had them on radar and then lost the radar picture."
An Egypt Air spokesman in New York declined comment and said the airline had "no information at all now."
According to airport officials in Cairo, the carrier said takeoff from JFK was delayed by two hours due to bad weather.
The National Weather Service said that at about the time the plane took off there was dense fog in the New York area.
-- Hawk (flyin@under.water), October 31, 1999.
damn Andy, ya beat me by 2 seconds!
-- Hawk (flyin@not.good), October 31, 1999.
Yeah Hawk but how many crew ???
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
That's right! They said the plane usually carries over 200, maybe 220 or so. Probably 8 or 10 crew maybe?OK, place your bets...
I say at least two very well known celebs or famous people on board.
-- Hawk (pilot@was.drunk), October 31, 1999.
Lost contact right after the switch to DST? Coincidence or conspiracy? Let's mourn the loss of the plane and its passengers and crew, but let's not get goofy blaming this on Y2k.
-- another (tr@ge.dy), October 31, 1999.
another,Yes it's a human tragedy.
But several of us on the forum have been predicting these sort of "incidents" as we approach y2k... that is why Hawk and I are understandably sceptical. It has been proven that 800 went down by a missile. Circumstantial evidence IMHO points to the same with Kennedy.
Wait and see how the controlled media are told play this - you will then get a clue about the agenda.
If I have offended anyone - sorry, but this sets the antennae going...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
They are getting conflicting reports - The airline is trying to say takeoff was delayed due to fog, but the FAA says they were late because they were waiting for equipment!You're right Andy, whatever the REAL problem is will be covered up faster than you can say Y2K. The thing about the time change does make me wonder though, maybe some of the chips they replaced weren't ready for the time change or something.
-- Hawk (flyin@seat.of.pants), October 31, 1999.
Given how screwed up the FAA is lately, I'll tell you a more likely scenario. The plane is probably still cruisin along halfway to Cairo by now, and it is the FAA instruments that switched off at the time change.
-- Hawk (flyin@who.knows), October 31, 1999.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Business executives in Saudi Arabia continue to transfer tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to Osama bin Laden, accused of last year's U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, USA Today reported Friday.The paper quoted senior U.S. intelligence officials as saying the money transfers began more than five years ago and had been used to finance several attacks by bin Laden, including an attempted assassination in 1995 of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia.
The United States Thursday said it would continue to meet Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to discuss demands for the expulsion of Saudi-born bin Laden, but officials cautioned that they expected no dramatic moves soon.
The United States accuses bin Laden, who lives in hiding in Afghanistan, of being behind explosions at U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in August 1998 which killed 224 people. Washington also believes bin Laden is implicated in a number of other planned attacks.
Bin Laden has denied the charges.
USA Today said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was expected to raise the issue with Saudi defense minister Prince Sultan during his visit to Washington next week.
It cited a Saudi government audit acquired by U.S. intelligence which showed that five of Saudi Arabia's top business executives ordered the National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom's largest, to transfer personal funds, along with $3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks.
The money was deposited into the accounts of Islamic charities, including Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief, that serve as fronts for bin Laden, according to the report.
Intelligence sources said the businessmen, who are worth more than $5 billion, were paying bin Laden ``protection money'' to stave off attacks on their businesses in Saudi Arabia, intelligence officials said.
Bin Laden, whose family runs the largest Saudi construction firm, has called for the overthrow of the Saudi government.
USA Today said the money transfers were discovered in April after the royal family ordered an audit of NCB and its founder and former chairman, Khalid bin Mahfouz.
Mahfouz is now under ``house arrest'' at a military hospital in the Saudi city of Taif, intelligence officials said.
His successor, Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi, also heads the Capitol Trust Bank in New York and London, which U.S. and British officials are investigating for allegedly transferring money to bin Laden, USA Today reported.
Amoudi's Washington lawyer, Vernon Jordan, could not be reached for comment. Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan declined to comment on the report, USA Today said.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Hawk, Andy, or anybody who might know:Can you tell me the incidents in the past two weeks of planes mysteriously fallen? I quickly read a post yesterday that did this, but now I can't find it anywhere. I know mishaps are not necessarily y2k related. I was particularly interested in the y2k test flight of air force planes that had a mishap. (At least that's what I remember reading.) Know anything about this?
-- (thank@you.c), October 31, 1999.
U.S. Says Not Optimistic About Bin Laden HandoverWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said Friday it had no reason to believe the Taliban movement in Afghanistan is about to hand over Saudi-born Islamist Osama bin Laden, averting U.N. sanctions due to start on Nov. 14.
If bin Laden leaves the country secretly, as he has reportedly suggested, that might not even be enough to avert sanctions against the Taliban, who rule most of the central Asian country, a U.S. spokesman added.
Bin Laden, wanted by the United States on charges of blowing up two U.S. embassies in Africa last year, was reported Friday to have sought safe passage from Afghanistan to an unknown country, to escape a tightening international noose.
The U.N. Security Council has told the Taliban to expel bin Laden to a country willing to try him or to pass him on for trial elsewhere. If the Taliban fail to comply by Nov. 14, sanctions will begin against the national airline Ariana.
``We keep hearing this stuff but we do not have much optimism that he will be turned over,'' the U.S. official said.
More than 200 people, including 12 Americans, were killed when bombs destroyed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998. The State Department has offered up to $5 million for information leading to the conviction of bin Laden and some of his associates.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Wow Andy, it could be he was trying to assassinate somebody on the plane huh!Better call the Navy Chief and tell 'em to warm up our tomahawks. If this one gets linked to Bin Laden we're going to blow the piss out of Afghanistan again.
-- Hawk (flyin@bombs.away), October 31, 1999.
According to what I saw on the CNN page a minute ago (6:40 AM East Coast) the plane is missing, not confirmed down. Does anyone think it's kind of interesting that it was lost off the radar screens at "about" 2:00 AM? Isn't that the official time of rolling the clocks back from Daylight Savings to Standard?-- lilsparky (star@dmcom.net), October 31, 1999
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Caught something out the corner of my ear about the plane having landed at Edwards Air Force Base prior to Kennedy?I may have heard it wrong, but that's what it sounded like. By the time I started to pay attention, the sound byte was over.
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
You're joking right, Ron?
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Are you saying someone was picked up there, the flight then continued, and is now missing?
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
They just confirmed that it landed at Edwards after taking off from LA.
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
They also said it was highly unusual.
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
Egypt Air just said it landed at Edwards, said pilot's name was Rushdie.Again, I'm not making this up!
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
This is starting to look really suspicious...Egyptian television quoted EgyptAir officials as saying that after the flight left Los Angeles, it made a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California before continuing on to JFK. However, there was no immediate confirmation from Edwards.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
[Don't worry, It'll turn out the Pilot only had 60 hrs flying time and they'll all be cremated within 24 hours...]Andy, you called it. CNN anchor just posed that flying time question to Art Cornelius, Retired Airline Capt'n.
-- (thank@you.c), October 31, 1999.
Sunday, 31 October 1999 11:43 (GMT)(NOTE: details, updates) (UPI Focus) Egypt Air jet missing off Nantucket BOSTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) - As dawn arrives on the Atlantic coast off Massachusetts, the U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a Boeing 767 operated by Egypt Air after the FAA reported the plane lost radar contact with flight controllers soon after taking off from JFK airport in New York. FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner said Flight 990 departed for Cairo at 1:19 a.m. EST and lost radar contact with controllers at 2 a.m., some 60 miles south of Nantucket. Senior Chief Richard Ross told United Press International that a Coast Guard jet and four cutters were searching for the aircraft. The waters of the area are some 60 feet deep, the Coast Guard told reporters early Sunday. Officials had no information on what might have happened to the plane, but broadcast reports say foggy weather in Suffolk County, west of the airport, delayed the flight's departure by some two hours. Egypt Air officials in Cairo said there were 197 people aboard. Just 12 days ago, an Egypt Air flight from Istanbul was hijacked by Fadlallah Omar. Egypt Air director Mohamed Fahim Rayan vowed on Oct. 23 that the airline's security procedures would be reorganized after the Oct. 20 incident, which ended with Omar's arrest after the plane landed in Hamburg, Germany. The FAA said on Sunday that it was too early to know if the FBI would be involved in finding the plane or solving its disappearance. The Cairo-based airline has a good safety record: The last reported crash of an Egypt Air plane was nearly a quarter century ago, in 1976. -- Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
A passenger plane at Edwards Air Force base???That is really freakin bizarre. Something real sneaky goin on here.
-- Hawk (flyin@all.over), October 31, 1999.
Sunday October 31 7:09 AM ETSearch On For EgyptAir Plane Off U.S. Coast - FAA
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investigators Sunday launched a massive predawn search in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts for a missing EgyptAir passenger plane that disappeared 41 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.
EgyptAir officials in Cairo said 197 passengers were aboard the twin- engine, wide-body Boeing 767 plane. They were unable to give the precise number of crew on board, but they named the pilot as Captain Ahmed el-Habashy.
EgyptAir officials said flight 990 was delayed in New York for two hours because of bad weather.
But FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said the flight left New York two hours and 20 minutes behind schedule because it was late coming into New York.
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Eliott Brenner said the plane departed New York's JFK airport for Cairo at 1:19 a.m. EST. It disappeared from radar screens at about 2 a.m. EST. The last contact was about 60 miles south of Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts.
The National Weather Service said that at about the time the plane took off there was dense fog in the New York area.
``There was a fog advisory at the time for Suffolk County,'' said NWS meteorologist Matthew Tauber. JFK is located in the borough of Queens, west of Suffolk County, but it was enveloped in fog throughout the night. Winds were light.
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Gary Jones described the search for flight 990 as ``massive and immediate.'' He told CNN every available Coast Guard aircraft and cutter was en route to the plane's last known position off Nantucket.
``We've got a massive search going on at this point now,'' he said from Boston. ``If someone is out there to be saved, saving lives on sea is our most important mission and we'll do that.''
A 270-foot cutter in the ocean off Massachusetts is operating as a command center for the search.
``They are searching right now for any signs of the plane,'' said U.S. Coast Guard Chief Dennis Hall.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency is monitoring the situation.
Contacted at his home in New Jersey, Elsayed Ibrahim, press consul for the Egyptian Mission to the United Nations in New York, ``I have nothing at all other than what I've heard on the news.''
A spokeswoman for the Port Authority in New York, which controls JFK airport had no further information. ``We are still gathering information at this time,'' said Port Authority Police Officer Cathy Dent.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
But FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said the flight left New York two hours and 20 minutes behind schedule because it was late coming into New York.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
This is starting to sound an awful lot like a political hijack.
-- Hawk (flyin@up.again), October 31, 1999.
Check this out - the controlled media spin has started already this from AP breaking... some disinformation hack just cobbled this together... watch for this piece in all your newspapers tomorrow...WHERE'S FLIGHT 800????????????????
WHERE'S THE KENNEDY FLIGHT????????
Not even mentioned...
======================================================================
Some major air disasters Major air crashes around the world:
- March 27, 1977: Two Boeing 747s operated by Pan American and KLM collide at airport on Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands; 582 killed.
- Aug. 12, 1985: Japan Air Lines 747 crashes into a mountain on a domestic flight; 520 killed.
- Nov. 12, 1996: Saudi 747 collides shortly after takeoff with a Kazak Ilyushin-76 making its landing approach; 349 killed.
- March 3, 1974: Turkish McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes northeast of Paris; 346 killed.
- June 23, 1985: Air-India 747 crashes off the coast of Ireland; investigators conclude a bomb caused the crash; 329 killed.
- Aug. 19, 1980: Fiery emergency landing of a Saudi Arabian Lockheed L-1011 at the airport in the Saudi capital of Riyadh; 301 killed.
- July 3, 1988: Iran Air A300 Airbus shot down by USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf; 290 killed.
- May 25, 1979: American Airlines DC-10 crashes on takeoff in Chicago; 275 killed.
- Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am 747 crashes at Lockerbie, Scotland; a terrorist bomb was blamed; 270 killed, including 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.
- Sept. 1, 1983: Korean Air Lines 747 shot down by a Soviet fighter after flying through Soviet airspace near Sakhalin Island; 269 killed.
- Sept. 2, 1998: Swissair Flight 111 from New York to Geneva crashed off Nova Scotia; 229 killed.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
======================================================================
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
"EgyptAir officials in Cairo said 197 passengers were aboard the twin- engine, wide-body Boeing 767 plane. They were unable to give the precise number of crew on board, but they named the pilot as Captain Ahmed el-Habashy."That's not what the CNN guy from Cairo said. He said the name was Rushdie.
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The woman rushed into the arms of her relative, sobbing, ``What's new? What's new?'' desperate to know whether her son was on the EgyptAir Boeing 767 that disappeared early Sunday on route from New York to Cairo.At Cairo airport, relatives, friends and colleages gathered, seeking news about EgyptAir flight 990, which said disappeared over the Atlantic around 60 miles off Nantucket with 197 passengers on board.
Reports of the disappearance was broadcast on Egyptian television several hours before the plane had been due to arrive. As people gathered, airport officials kept them at the foot of a staircase below the EgyptAir operations office.
The woman, Aida, feared that her son, Essam Bahjat, an EgyptAir steward, was on Flight 990 returning home from vacation in the United States. He had promised to call his mother, Aida, if he missed the flight - and so far there was no word from him.
Bahjat's brother-in-law, Imad Kassab, told her Bahjat had not been on the passenger list.
``I don't care, because he may have been listed as an extra crew member,'' Aida said. Kassab hadn't looked at the crew list. His hands trembling and his voice emotional, Kassab - the owner of a Cairo branch of the U.S. restaurant Cheesecake Factory - called relatives on his mobile phone with the latest news.
Around dozen people gathered at the base of the stairs, with tensions high. One man started punching and shoving officials and had to be restrained.
A woman in a red scarf, whose husband was reportedly on board the flight, yelled from the bottom of the stairs, ``We have relatives on this flight. Who else would try to come up?''
Nearby, a Cairo travel agent, Ala Mansour, said he had come to receive a couple from Montreal due to arrive on the flight. ``This is very bad news,'' Mansour said. ``I was just going to the airport to meet my clients.''
Inside the operations office, EgyptAir's head Mohammed Fahim Rayan and other officials huddled.
Outside the office, airline stewards waited for news about their colleages. EgyptAir officials said 197 passengers were on the flight, but the number of crewmen was not announced.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Funny this...Not one of the controlled media, UPI, AP and REUTERS have mentioned the Andrews Air Force Base angle...
We have to get this information from Egypt...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
While scrolling down this thread, something caught my eye that I hadn't noticed before.Vernon Jordan is representing a banker that's been payrolling Bin Ladin?
That's cute.
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
They're not denying that it landed at Edwards."No record."
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
They just said they found a debris field.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
Debris located, within 15 miles of last radar contact.
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
D'oh, need sleep. Meant to say they're NOW denying it landed at Edwards.
-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 31, 1999.
More spin - and no mention of Flight 800...====================================================================== 07.35am
BOSTON (AP) - A Boeing 767 plane with 197 passengers aboard disappeared over the ocean about 60 miles south of Nantucket early Sunday after taking off from New York's Kennedy International Airport.
EgyptAir Flight 990 was headed to Cairo, Egypt, Coast Guard Lt. Rob Halsey said. It originated in Los Angeles, according to EgyptAir officials at Cairo International Airport.
There were 197 passengers on the flight, an EgyptAir official said.
``What we have right now is, we weren't able to establish contact,'' Halsey said. ``They had them on radar and then lost the radar picture.''
Flight 990 took off from Kennedy at 1:19 a.m. and disappeared from radar at 2 a.m. while flying at 33,000 feet, said Eliot Brenner, chief spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington. Weather at Kennedy was good with 3 to 4 miles of visibility and light wind, the National Weather Service said.
According to FAA officials in Washington, the plane's takeoff from Kennedy was delayed by two hours because it arrived late from Los Angeles. The cause of the delay was not immediately known.
The Coast Guard sent every available cutter and aircraft in the Northeast to join the search, plus airplanes from far away as Elizabeth City, N.C., said spokesman Jim McPherson.
The National Transportation Safety Board was monitoring the situation but had not sent its ``go-team'' of investigators, said spokesman Keith Halloway.
An FBI source said the agency was monitoring the situation as part of a ``normal routine response'' to an aircraft disappearance, and had sent agents to Kennedy airport.
The EgyptAir plane was on a route similar to the one taken by Swissair Flight 111, a McDonnell Douglas MD11, which crashed off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998, killing all 229 people aboard. Planes on that route fly from Kennedy to Nantucket, then turn north to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland before heading east across the Atlantic.
At Cairo Airport, relatives and friends gathered to await news.
Imad Kassab trembled with hope when he discovered that his brother-in- law, Essam Bahjat, was not on the passenger list for the flight as he had feared. Kassab, owner of the Cairo branch of the U.S.-based restaurant Cheesecake Factory, quickly called friends and relatives.
The plane was a Boeing 767-300ER delivered to the airline in September 1989. It had logged over 31,000 flight hours and 6,900 take- offs and landings, said Boeing spokeswoman Barbara Murphy in Seattle.
EgyptAir, founded in 1932 at Misr Airwork, has a fleet of 38 planes and flies to some 85 airports around the world.
Critics have called for the privatization of the company, one of the oldest in Africa and the Middle East, amid reports of bad management and bad service.
The Boeing 767 is a twin-engine, wide-body passenger jet that went into passenger use in September 1982, when the first one was delivered to United Airlines. As of April 1, Boeing had received 865 orders for the 767 and delivered 746 airplanes.
One of the planes crashed on May 26, 1991, when a Lauda Air 767-300ER crashed near Suphan Buri Province, Thailand.
The Lauda airplane lost control and crashed after one of its engine thrust reversers accidentally deployed during a climb. The jet lost 25 percent to 30 percent of its lift and plunged out of control into the ground, killing all 10 crew and 213 passengers.
In addition, an Ethiopian Airlines 767-200ER crashed near Moroni, Comoros, on Nov. 23, 1996, while attempting to land after being hijacked. The aircraft had been on a flight from Ethiopia to Kenya. Ten of the 12 crew members and 117 of the 160 passengers were killed. The three hijackers apparently died.
The United States airline industry went through a fatality-free year in 1998, but this year there has been the crash of an American Airlines jet in Little Rock, Ark., the loss of John F. Kennedy's private plane off Martha's Vineyard this summer and last week's crash of a Learjet carrying golfer Payne Stewart.
The Little Rock crash occurred June 1, as an MD-80 tried to land at night in stormy weather. Eleven people died.
The crash of Kennedy's plane on July 16 killed him, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Yeah, right. It landed at Edwards to pick up the bomb that the gubmint used to blow it up. It's wag the Y2K dog, and get Bin Laden all in one shot. We'll be bombing Afghanistan soon if they don't turn him over.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
"D'oh, need sleep. Meant to say they're NOW denying it landed at Edwards."That's not what Egypt are saying...
And it was late arriving at New York...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Gubmint wants to get Bin Laden in the worst way, so what do they do, set it up as an act of terrorism and lay the blame to Bin baby. They stopped at Edwards, telling them there was some problem, and they wire the bomb up to go. It is late coming into New York because of the stop at Edwards, and then it blows up right off the coast. Expect to see some stories popping up shortly that gubmint has reason to believe the Bin man did it, so they will want to immediately bring him to the U.S. to face charges. If Afghanistan refuses to turn him over, we'll have a bombing campaign. The added bonus of the whole thing - gubmint will initiate full stage terrorist security, which is really to get the muscle out on the streets before Y2K hits.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
Sunday October 31 7:49 AM ETLost EgyptAir Plane Gave Distress Call-EgyptAir
CAIRO (Reuters) - EgyptAir officials said the airliner which went missing off the U.S. coast Sunday gave a distress call before contact was lost.
Contact with the Boeing 767 was lost after it took off from New York's John F. Kennedy airport with 197 passengers on board.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
So why did the TV reports + Egypt say it landed at Edwards?======================================================================
Sunday, 31 October 1999 12:40 (GMT)
(UPI Spotlight)
Missing jet never stopped at USAF base
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) - Egypt Air Flight 990 vanished at 2 a.m. EST after departing JFK airport in New York. The flight originated in Los Angeles and was delayed at JFK for two hours due to bad weather. Contrary to reports being broadcast Sunday morning, FAA spokesman Elliot
Brenner told United Press International the plane did not make an emergency stop at Edwards Air Force Base in California. "The aircraft did not at any time land at Edwards," said Brenner. "That is erroneous information being reported." The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for the Boeing 767 off the coast of Nantucket, Mass.
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Coast Guard: Plane wreckage foundSunday, 31 October 1999 12:49 (GMT)
(urgent)
(UPI Spotlight)
Coast Guard: Plane wreckage found
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) - The Coast Guard has located crash debris near the last contact point with Egypt Air Flight 990, which vanished from radar screens at 2 a.m. EST Sunday. The search began at dawn some 60 miles off the coast of Nantucket, Mass. The Cairo-bound Boeing 767 had 197 people aboard.
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
The good thing about America is they don't have "D" notices... I suppose...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
This is more like it, the Frogs have a mind of their own...======================================================================
Egyptian plane made emergency landing at US air base
CAIRO, Oct 31 (AFP) - An Egyptian airliner reported missing after take-off from New York Sunday had already made an emergency landing at the US Air Force Edwards base in California en route from Los Angeles, a Cairo airport official said.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said the unscheduled landing at the airbase was due to bad weather.
The official said the twin-engined Boeing 767 was carrying 197 passengers and five cockpit crew, plus an unspecified number of cabin staff.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Hawk,Do you live here, you pathetic piece of garbage? Get a life.
-- (Hawkeye@Iowa.STATE), October 31, 1999.
Man, the media coverup is starting to flow already. We heard it as it broke though, they said there was NO distress call whatsoever, and they said several times that it DID land at Edwards. Now the lies are already coming out to erase those facts.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
Oh great, another fucking troll is going to steal my name.Get the fuck out asshole!
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
This is from CNN - notice that Ron Scwartz was right that he heard the name Rushdie mentioned as the planes' captain, check out the other discrepancies...The reason I'm doing all this cutting and pasting is that these wire reports have a habit of "disappearing" and being "edited" (this is already happening! check for yourself...)) as the SPIN continues...
======================================================================
EgyptAir 767 reported missing; U.S. Coast Guard finds debris in waters off Massachusetts
October 31, 1999
Web posted at: 8:15 a.m. EST (1315 GMT)
NANTUCKET, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The U.S. Coast Guard has found a debris field in the sea about 45 miles south-southeast of Nantucket, possibly from a Boeing 767 passenger plane that disappeared from radar screens early Sunday off the coast of Massachusetts.
The Federal Aviation Administration lost contact with EgyptAir Flight 990 about 2 a.m. EST, about 60 miles (100 km) south/southeast of the island of Nantucket, Coast Guard officials said.
The Coast Guard Air Station on Cape Cod confirms that the debris found is within 15 miles of the site of the last radar contact with the missing plane.
The plane took off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Cairo, Egypt.
There were 199 passengers on the flight, as well as 15 crew members, an EgyptAir official said in Cairo.
The plane departed at 1:19 a.m. EST. The plane was flying at 33,000 feet (9,900 meters), said Eliot Brenner, chief spokesman for the FAA in Washington.
There was no indication of a distress call, U.S. officials said.
But airport officials in Cairo said the last communication from the plane's crew was an SOS sent after the takeoff from New York.
The FAA contacted the Coast Guard about 2:15 a.m. EST, said Coast Guard Lt. Gary Jones.
"We have every available Coast Guard aircraft and cutter en route to the last known position" of the plane, said Jones.
"We're doing a very, very aggressive airborne search at this moment. Basically, if there is someone out there to be saved, saving lives at sea is our most important mission and we're doing that," Jones said.
"What we have right now is, we weren't able to establish contact," Coast Guard Lt. Rob Halsey said. "They had them on radar and then lost the radar picture."
"The plane is equipped with an ELT, an electronic locator transmitter, but if there was an impact with the water -- which is an assumption at this point -- there's no guarantee this would have gone off," retired airline Capt. Art Cornelius told CNN.
An EgyptAir spokesman in New York declined comment and said the airline had "no information at all now."
An FAA spokesman said the plane departed two hours and twenty minutes late from JFK because it was late coming in from Los Angeles.
After the flight left Los Angeles, EgyptAir officials were quoted on Egyptian TV as saying it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California before continuing on to JFK. But according to Pentagon and FAA officials, the flight did not stop at Edwards.
The National Weather Service said that at about the time the plane took off from JFK there was dense fog in the New York area.
But the fog may not have played a role in the plane's disappearance.
"The fog definitely would not have been a factor, you just don't care whether there's fog or not in a plane as advanced as a 767," Cornelius said.
The airline identified the pilot at Hakim Rushdi who had more than 10,000 hours of flight experience. Colleagues described him as a "very experienced pilot." The airline said he had been in contact with his son, also an EgyptAir pilot, hours before leaving.
The airliner is a 10-year-old 767-300ER, an extended-range plane known for its North Atlantic service, said Boeing spokeswoman Barbara Murphy.
"It's an airplane that has enjoyed a wonderful safety record," she said.
EgyptAir has a fleet of 38 planes and flies to some 85 airports around the world.
The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation, an NTSB spokesman said, and the New York Port Authority has set up a mobile command center.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
Yep, this is the phony terrorism we knew was coming and it is going to be a big time cover-up. Why else would the Pentagon get involved with Edwards Air Force Base. Now they are saying it was delayed for "reasons unknown". Well, at 5:30am p.t. I need to catch a few winks, catch ya later.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
C'mon kids lets all grow up now. The truth is that Flight 800 was shot down by terrorists. Anyone who believes that bullshit about self exploding wing tanks is high on crack. I have a friend who lives on the Island who was on the water that night. Saw the flash go UP from the water to the plane. Plane then came down. Anyone who believes that we Americans are immune to terrorist attacks lives in a fantasy world. On the same hand, I think the Admin should now come forward and admit this problem despite what it will do to the already Y2K impaired air industry.Also, you fruitcakes that believe we bombed an Egyptian plane are WAAAYYY out there. Dial back in to some type of sanity will ya? And folks, especially you liberal bastards out there, I'd appreciate it if you'd start supporting our military, esp. our spec forces and spooks. These guys will keep us alive in a very bad world in the comming years. In the meantime keep yourselves soft and unarmed...as always and when the bad guys show up....say the following "Please mr. badguy terrorist/gangbanger don't hurt me, I'm unarmed and I supported a guy who dismantled our military, I'm on your side!"
-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), October 31, 1999.
Sunday, 31 October 1999 13:06 (GMT)(NOTE: debris field found; other media reports of edwards AFB landing debunked; flight details added)
(UPI Focus)
Debris found in Atlantic; crash feared
BOSTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) - The Coast Guard said it has located what appears to be crash debris near the last contact point with Egypt Air Flight 990, which vanished from radar screens at 2 a.m. EST Sunday.
The search and rescue effort is now centered in the Atlantic waters 45 miles southeast of Nantucket, Mass. The Cairo-bound Boeing 767 had 197 people aboard.
The debris field located by the Coast Guard has not yet been positively identified as Egypt Air's Flight 990, which dropped off radar screens approximately 60 miles south of Nantucket. The Coast Guard has not confirmed the debris belongs to Flight 990.
The FAA reported the plane lost radar contact with flight controllers soon after taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The flight's eastern route began in Los Angeles late Saturday with a regular stop in New York before taking off for Cairo.
FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner said Flight 990 departed for Cairo at 1:19 a.m. EST and lost radar contact with controllers at 2 a.m., some 60 miles south of Nantucket.
Contrary to reports broadcast Sunday morning, FAA spokesman Brenner told United Press International the plane did not make an emergency stop at Edwards Air Force Base in California. "The aircraft did not at any time land at Edwards," said Brenner. "That is erroneous information being reported."
Senior Chief Richard Ross told UPI that a Coast Guard jet and four cutters were involved in the search-and-rescue mission. The waters of the area are some 60 feet deep, the Coast Guard told reporters early Sunday. The National Transportation Safety Board's emergency team is on standby awaiting more information on the debris field. Officials had no information on what might have happened to the plane, but broadcast reports say foggy weather in Suffolk County, west of the airport, delayed the flight's departure by some two hours.
Hundreds of frantic family members have flocked to Cairo International Airport to await word on the fate of their relatives on the missing plane. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo said Sunday it had no knowledge of Americans aboard the craft.
Flight 990 runs a regular route from Cairo to JFK to Los Angeles International Airport and back again. The FAA said Sunday the plane stopped at Newark, N.J., instead of JFK on its westward leg, but otherwise flew its normal route.
Just 12 days ago, an Egypt Air flight from Istanbul, Turkey, was hijacked by Fadlallah Omar. Egypt Air director Mohamed Fahim Rayan vowed on Oct. 23 that the airline's security procedures would be reorganized after the Oct. 20 incident, which ended with Omar's arrest after the plane landed in Hamburg, Germany.
The FAA said early Sunday that it was too early to know if the FBI would be involved in solving the plane's apparent crash. The Port Authority of New York said a briefing would be held shortly after 8 a.m. EST.
In Amman, Jordan, a civil aviation official told UPI the only reason a plane would disappear from the radar when the plane is in the vicinity is an, "explosion, there is no other explanation."
The Cairo-based airline has a good safety record: The last reported crash of an Egypt Air jet was nearly a quarter century ago, in 1976. The Boeing 767, considered a "mini jumbo jet," is a pilot's favorite and has an excellent safety record, Boeing officials said. -- Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
CNN said AP had said the plane landed at Edwards Air Force base snd theen preceeded to discuss that news.At 7:45 A.M. EST, I believe the mans name is Art Cornelius who the anchor of CNN was talking to, said he was only speculating(or something like that) but one thing that could cause a problem would be LIGHT REVERSAL VALVE(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) then he was abruptly stopped and they went to someone else.Mabe someone can get the trans script for that time.
The pentagon said the plane did not land at Edwards Air Force base.Right after this ,at 7:57 AM EST, CNN anchor spoke to Ben Lederman(a reporter) from Egypt and he said the plane had indeed landed at the base,He was quickly stopped and told the Pentagon had denied that happened.
Before I came on this post,I thought it was odd that the plane went down right at the time change over.Could that cause a problem with a reversal valve????
-- Maggie (aaa@aaa.com), October 31, 1999.
Gordon,Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the USA bombed the plane AT ALL... I am saying there are a lot of moves going on with Bin Laden, threats of Bin Laden nukes here on US soil, Saudis' financing Bin Laden (and there is a big Egyptian/Saudi connection), the Bin Laden attempted assasination of the Egyptian PM, the expulsion of Bin Laden from Afghanistan, Bin Laden looking for a new home... and the 800 missile job.
Just trying to play devil's advocate and document the controlled- media spin...
Too many coincidences here.
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
You mean there really is such a place as Nantucket??? I thought Benny Hill made it up.But seriously folks, this thread, plus lots of the other OT threads here, go to show that quite a lot of the people who are y2k nuts are kick-ass NEWS watchers - not like Sam Wig or Morley whatzizname, people who know enough to understand what's going on immediately, not just schmucks with good hair. Y2k has more newshound-y2k-nuts than computer-expert-y2k-nuts, I would be guessing.
It landed at Edwards, then went on to crash!!! Wierd story. Bound to be more to it.
-- number six (iam_not_a_number@hotmail.com), October 31, 1999.
In the last few years the government of Egypt has had continual problems with Muslim fundamentalists shooting up tourist buses etc. This is probably a terrorist attack by these extremists - I wonder just who was on that plane.
-- Lornna Mitchell (doone@digital.net), October 31, 1999.
Ah well, that's my night shift over with.Off home for a couple of brewski's.
Over to you guys - don't let the bastards whitewash this one!
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.
This is the BBC report:Sunday, October 31, 1999 Published at 11:09 GMT
214 feared dead in Boeing crash
A "field of debris" has been found in the Atlantic after a Boeing 767 with 214 passengers on board disappeared from radar screens on the way from New York to Cairo.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington said the EgyptAir Flight 990 vanished while flying at 33,000ft.
US Coast Guard reported it was 62 miles (100km) south of Nantucket Island off the Massachusetts coast at around 2am local time. It had earlier been delayed by fog.
EgyptAir officials reportedly said the 767 300ER had sent out a distress call before contact was lost, but FAA sources denied this was the case.
"We weren't able to establish contact," said Coast Guard Lt Rob Halsey. "They had them on radar and then lost the radar picture."
A massive sea search was launched with a coast guard Falcon jet and four vessels joining any other boats and planes in the area at sunrise. A 270ft cutter off Massachusetts was operating as a command centre for the search.
The first reports of debris were about 45 miles south east of Nantucket.
EgyptAir in Cairo said there were 199 passengers on board the flight, including two infants, and 15 crew.
Rescue mission
"We've got a massive search going on," said US Coast Guard Lt Gary Jones. "If someone is out there to be saved, saving lives on sea is our most important mission and we'll do that."
The flight was believed to have originated in Los Angeles, but earlier reports that it had also landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California before going on to JFK International Airport in New York were denied by the base.
The 180ft, twin-engined Boeing 767 300, piloted by Captain Ahmad al-Habashi, left JFK at 1.19am local time and was due to arrive in Cairo at 1620 (1420 GMT).
Tearful relatives have begun to arrive at Cairo airport, awaiting further news of Flight 990, and airport officials said its switchboard was jammed with inquiries.
Officials in Cairo said the jet had been delayed by fog for two hours at JFK, and the US National Weather Service said there had been dense fog in the New York area.
Captain al-Habashi was believed to be a very experienced pilot with some 10,000 hours experience. The Egyptian news agency MENA named the co-pilots as Ra'uf Izz-al-Din and Adil Annub.
Safety record
A BBC Correspondent in Cairo says EgyptAir has had a fairly good safety record in recent years.
She said there had been no hint in local media that the airline was under threat of attack.
EgyptAir has a fleet of 38 planes and flies to some 85 airports around the world. There are two 767 300s in the fleet, carrying 269-350 passengers and operated by two crew.
The plane that vanished was delivered to EgyptAir in September 1989, said Boeing spokeswoman Barbara Murphy. It had logged over 31,000 flight hours and 6,900 take-offs and landings.
As of 1 April, Boeing had received 865 orders for the 767 and delivered 746 airplanes.
The only 767 disaster to date, not caused by terrorists, was a Lauda flight which crashed on take-off from Bangkok airport in 1991, killing all 10 crew and 233 passengers.
The EgyptAir plane was on a route similar to the one taken by Swissair Flight 111, a McDonnell Douglas MD11, which crashed off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998, killing all 229 people aboard.
Planes on that route fly from Kennedy to Nantucket, then turn north to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland before heading east across the Atlantic.
EgyptAir telephone number for concerned relatives +1 800 243 1094.
-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 31, 1999.
Andy made the statement that Vernon Jordan represents the new head of a financing arm for bin Laden. Where did this information come from? If true, this is very important. It is a grave matter when the President's closest friend and confidant is the lawyer for an individual suspected of financing a terrorist with bad intentions against us. Does anyone have confirmation of this relationship?
-- mike (maples@voy.net), October 31, 1999.
Thanks to all you night posters for compiling this thread. Yes, the earliest reports are not so guarded and spun -- good job pasting them here.And now for some more weird news on AP Breaking News:
[ Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only ]
10/31/99 -- 9:51 AM
FAA issued unconfirmed bomb alert for New York, Los Angeles
WASHINGTON (AP) - A month ago, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert to airline and airport security personnel after agencies received an unconfirmed warning that a bomb would ``soon be used'' on a flight departing from Los Angeles or Kennedy airport in New York.
Officials said they had no reason to believe the disappearance of an EgyptAir flight on Sunday was caused by sabotage. Investigators were attempting to determine the fate of Flight 990 after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport. The flight originated Saturday in Los Angeles.
Many aviation warnings are investigated each month by federal agencies and the Sept. 24 alert said: ``At this time, FAA has no information to corroborate the statements in the letter and assess them as lacking credibility.''
Asked about the alert, David Leavy, spokesman for National Security Council, told The Associated Press, ``I don't want to speculate on this until we have information.''
A U.S. intelligence official said at midmorning Sunday that agencies were pursuing the possibility of sabotage, but, ``There's nothing to immediately point toward that.'' Another official said there had been no recent threat that seemed relevant to the EgyptAir disappearance.
In a Sept. 24 ``information circular,'' the FAA said several U.S. agencies received a warning by letter in August ``that a bomb or explosive device with `spiral expansion' would soon be used on a flight departing from either Los Angeles airport or New York's JFK airport.''
The circular said the informant ``identified himself as Luciano Porcari,'' and noted that ``an individual with this same name hijacked an Iberian Boeing 727 during a flight from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on March 14, 1977,'' before being overpowered and arrested.
The alert said the writer said ``three of these devices were smuggled into the United States between 1992 and 1993, and that the devices cannot be detected on a metal detector because of the PVC (plastic) composition.''
The alert was in effect until Oct. 30. EgyptAir Flight 990 departed Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 30, and stopped at John F. Kennedy International Airport, bound for Cairo. The plane took off from JFK at 1:19 a.m. Sunday en route to Cairo and disappeared from radar screens about 40 minutes later.
At a news conference in Cairo, the head of EgyptAir, Mohammed Fahim Rayan, said he had no information of any direct threat against his airline.
Last month, the FAA offered no comment on its alert.
``The FAA often sends out information on threats to ensure that airlines can properly implement security measures,'' agency spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said at the time.
``We do want to assure the public that the FAA works with law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the United States and other countries and we closely evaluate all threats and take appropriate security measures as warranted,'' Trexler added.
The FAA circular said a Luciano Porcari was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Jan. 25, 1979, but later escaped. In August 1981, he threatened to hijack another aircraft unless he was paid $250,000. He was subsequently arrested in Italy and sentenced to nine years in prison on Jan. 27, 1982. The circular said he was released on Aug. 12, 1982, and his whereabouts were unknown.
In the warning received by letter ``to several U.S. government agencies,'' the informant ``claimed that between 1975 and 1983 eight of the devices were manufactured, that only three remained and that one was in the U.S.
He also said he had warned various U.S. authorities about the device before the July 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island and the September 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Newfoundland.
The TWA plane had taken off from Kennedy airport en route to Paris, while the Swissair plane had taken off from Kennedy en route to Geneva.
After an extensive investigation, authorities ruled out a criminal act in the TWA crash. They now believe there was an explosion for an undetermined reason in the plane's center fuel tank. The Swissair plane crashed 16 minutes after the pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. Authorities have not determined a cause but are focusing on the airplane's wiring and insulation material.
---------------------------------------------------------Andy, hope you have a computer at home!
-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 31, 1999.
GordonGecko said:"And folks, especially you liberal bastards out there, I'd appreciate it if you'd start supporting our military, esp. our spec forces and spooks."I love this, the bizarre twist the far-right mind does.
The only people complaining about the spooks and special ops/black ops are the right-wing militias, constitutionalists, NWO-fear mongers, etc. As a matter of fact the "liberals" dont even pay attention to this sort of thing. Arent the "liberals" the ones who are supporting the socialistic jack-booted-thugs,the national guard controlling the streets, black/special ops doing gun grabs and putting people in internment camps ?.
Make up your mind, do you hate the military dark side or dont you?.
Maybe its purely selective, when it benefits your cause the government is good, when it looks like a conspiracy is at hand you hate the government, military and judicial system and want it all ripped out and replaced.
-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), October 31, 1999.
AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!767 "most computerized" plane
2/a TIME SHIFT -- Fall Back
COMPUTER PROBLEM -- COMPUTER PROBLEM --- COMPUTER PROBLEM
Read this! $#!+ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just up on AP Breaking News: Fair Use
10/31/99 -- 10:15 AM
Boeing 767 bound for New York forced to return to Brussels
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 heading for New York was forced to return to Brussels International Airport Sunday after developing engine trouble. The plane landed safely with no injuries, airport officials said.
The plane was a similar model to the Egypt Air Boeing 767 which disappeared earlier Sunday shortly after leaving New York for Cairo.
Brussels Airport officials said Delta Flight 141 to New York returned to Brussels around 12:15 p.m., about 45 minutes after taking off for New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. There were 170 passengers on board, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
``The flight landed safely,'' said Jean-Pierre Huybrechts, a Delta official at Brussels airport. ``There was a problem with one of engines and the plane came back.''
He declined to give more details.
Airport emergency services were put on alert, but were not needed.
----------------------------------------------
-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 31, 1999.
ABC news just said debris just found with one body floating in water.
-- Onebyone (susanwater@excite.com), October 31, 1999.
mike,USA Today reported Friday that Vernon Jordan represents Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi, the new head of Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank. According to the Saudi royal family, National Commercial Bank transferred millions to bank accounts in New York and London, for charities that are fronts for the Bin Laden organization. This is the article:
Saudi money aiding bin Laden By Jack Kelley, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - More than a year after the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa, prominent businessmen in Saudi Arabia continue to transfer tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden, senior U.S. intelligence officials told USA TODAY.
The money transfers, which began more than five years ago, have been used to finance several terrorist acts by bin Laden, including the attempted assassination in 1995 of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, the officials said.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to raise the issue with Prince Sultan, the Saudi defense minister, during his visit to Washington next week. Saudi Arabia, the main U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, has pledged to fight terrorism.
According to a Saudi government audit acquired by U.S. intelligence, five of Saudi Arabia's top businessmen ordered the National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom's largest, to transfer personal funds, along with $3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks.
The money was deposited into the accounts of Islamic charities, including Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief, that serve as fronts for bin Laden.
The businessmen, who are worth more than $5 billion, are paying bin Laden "protection money" to stave off attacks on their businesses in Saudi Arabia, intelligence officials said. Bin Laden, whose family runs the largest Saudi construction firm, has called for the overthrow of the Saudi government.
The money transfers were discovered in April after the royal family ordered an audit of NCB and its founder and former chairman, Khalid bin Mahfouz, U.S. officials say. Mahfouz is now under "house arrest" at a military hospital in the Saudi city of Taif, intelligence officials said.
His successor, Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi, also heads the Capitol Trust Bank in New York and London, which U.S. and British officials are investigating for allegedly transferring money to bin Laden. Amoudi's Washington lawyer, Vernon Jordan, could not be reached for comment.
Mahfouz's son, Abdul Rahman Mahfouz, is on the board of Blessed Relief in Sudan. Suspects in the Mubarak attack are linked to the charity.
Bin Laden faces U.S. criminal charges for allegedly masterminding the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Bin Laden, who is in Afghanistan, denies the charges.
Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan declined to comment on the reports.
-- Ron Rodgers (RonRodgers@Resilience2000.com), October 31, 1999.
AP has this report:FAA Got Plane Bomb Alert Last Month
Filed at 10:50 a.m. EST
By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- A month ago, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert to airline and airport security personnel after agencies received an unconfirmed warning that a bomb would ``soon be used'' on a flight departing from Los Angeles or Kennedy airport in New York.
Officials said they had no reason to believe the disappearance of an EgyptAir flight on Sunday was caused by sabotage. Investigators were attempting to determine the fate of Flight 990 after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport. The flight originated Saturday in Los Angeles.
Many aviation warnings are investigated each month by federal agencies and the Sept. 24 alert said: ``At this time, FAA has no information to corroborate the statements in the letter and assess them as lacking credibility.''
Asked about the alert, David Leavy, spokesman for National Security Council, told The Associated Press, ``I don't want to speculate on this until we have information.''
A U.S. intelligence official said at midmorning Sunday that agencies were pursuing the possibility of sabotage, but, ``There's nothing to immediately point toward that.'' Another official said there had been no recent threat that seemed relevant to the EgyptAir disappearance.
A third official said there had been no immediate credit claims made to the U.S. government.
The official said law enforcement agencies are reviewing past tips and phone traffic to see if there was a lead that was passed over before and might be relevant after the plane disappeared.
``We don't want to sit around a week and then find out this was a crime and start investigating,'' the official said.
In a Sept. 24 ``information circular,'' a copy of which was obtained by the AP, the FAA said several U.S. agencies received a warning by letter in August ``that a bomb or explosive device with `spiral expansion' would soon be used on a flight departing from either Los Angeles airport or New York's JFK airport.''
The circular said the informant ``identified himself as Luciano Porcari,'' and noted that ``an individual with this same name hijacked an Iberian Boeing 727 during a flight from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on March 14, 1977,'' before being overpowered and arrested.
The alert said the writer said ``three of these devices were smuggled into the United States between 1992 and 1993, and that the devices cannot be detected on a metal detector because of the PVC (plastic) composition.''
The alert was in effect until Oct. 30. EgyptAir Flight 990 departed Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 30, and stopped at John F. Kennedy International Airport, bound for Cairo. The plane took off from JFK at 1:19 a.m. Sunday en route to Cairo and disappeared from radar screens about 40 minutes later.
At a news conference in Cairo, the head of EgyptAir, Mohammed Fahim Rayan, said he had no information of any direct threat against his airline.
Last month, the FAA offered no comment on its alert.
``The FAA often sends out information on threats to ensure that airlines can properly implement security measures,'' agency spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said at the time.
``We do want to assure the public that the FAA works with law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the United States and other countries and we closely evaluate all threats and take appropriate security measures as warranted,'' Trexler added.
The FAA circular said a Luciano Porcari was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Jan. 25, 1979, but later escaped. In August 1981, he threatened to hijack another aircraft unless he was paid $250,000. He was subsequently arrested in Italy and sentenced to nine years in prison on Jan. 27, 1982. The circular said he was released on Aug. 12, 1982, and his whereabouts were unknown.
In the warning received by letter ``to several U.S. government agencies,'' the informant ``claimed that between 1975 and 1983 eight of the devices were manufactured, that only three remained and that one was in the U.S.
He also said he had warned various U.S. authorities about the device before the July 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island and the September 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Newfoundland.
The TWA plane had taken off from Kennedy airport en route to Paris, while the Swissair plane had taken off from Kennedy en route to Geneva.
After an extensive investigation, authorities ruled out a criminal act in the TWA crash. They now believe there was an explosion for an undetermined reason in the plane's center fuel tank.
The Swissair plane crashed 16 minutes after the pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. Authorities have not determined a cause but are focusing on the airplane's wiring and insulation material.
-- Ron Rodgers (RonRodgers@Resilience2000.com), October 31, 1999.
ANOTHER ONE !!!!!!!10/31/99 -- 11:16 AM
Bodies recovered after small plane crashes off Key West
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - Divers recovered two bodies Sunday from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after takeoff.
Four people were believed to be aboard.
Radio and radar contact with the Cessna 310 was lost shortly after it took off at 10:10 p.m. Saturday, officials said.
The plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico about five miles north of Key West. A helicopter crew found white debris with red and orange stripes after daybreak Sunday.
Monroe County sheriff's divers retrieved the bodies, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Silvia Olvera. Identities of the victims were not immediately available.
---------------------------------------------------The body count for the Halloween/Fall Back Time Shift plane wreck "coincidences" are starting to pile up ...
-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 31, 1999.
WOW!! Flight 99..zero and one hundred and 99 passengers killed! Richard Hoagland and the boys at www. enterprisemission.com should have a field day with this!
-- Ralpg Kramden (and@awaywego.com), October 31, 1999.
Substantial breaking news, with serious computer-problem implications, and watch the trolls come swarming out of the wormwood.Thank you, trolls, for stamping the Badge of Importance on this thread by peeing your piss-spray on it.
Happy Halloween everybody!
-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 31, 1999.
"Meanwhile, the reports added, Egypt declared a state
of emergency in the area surrounding Cairo Airport soon
after the news of the missing aircraft became known in
order to give the authorities better security control in
case of worse prospects."PANA
-- spider (spider0@usa.net), October 31, 1999.
Oh yes, maybe we will find that some "terrorist act" is behind the crash...yeah, right. Maybe the Branch Davidians did it. Y2K is going to get away with MURDER, because the mental-midget worshippers refuse to admit that their technology god is dead.Thanks, Ashton and Leska, for the info on the other planes.
The mental-midgets have to be Crushed, cause Jane Gravy-Train(isn't she the false prophet?)SWORE that no planes were gonna fall outta the sky, and the mental-midget devotees are getting worried. Cause planes ARE falling outta the sky. To quote someone from this site: Tick...Tock.
-- visions and dreams (butno@dreamer.comm), October 31, 1999.
Before anyone goes off thinking a "computer glitch" caused by a date function (Y2K) caused the crash of flight 990, Because aircraft fly through different time zones all of the time they use a common "time" reference, GMT (or what used to be ZULU) I am trying to remember, and because of having to change their other clocks for whatever time zone they are in (for reference etc) the changing of time is done very often and changing due to daylight savings time would be no different. And if you think about it, they have been changing the same ones for the last 10 years or so.I am stating from first hand knowledge, hands on experience of said aircraft that that is not a possibility. Boeing does not leave the safety of their aircraft to the responsibility of a computer chip or chips, much less one that has a date function. Any computerization in those aircraft are strictly cosmetic. Totally superficial to basic functions of flight.
Period.
No amount of "speculation", no matter how well presented can change this fact.
As for it being flight 990, All that that is, is a "flight" number. It would have been flight 990 if it were a DC10, or L1011. It means nothing.
Now having said that, something caused it to crash and it could have been caused by anything from pilot error to aircraft failure. I am not saying what it is, I am saying what it is not.
I would like to find out about the aircraft that crashed due to the reverse thruster.
On a two engine aircraft like the 767 if one engine went into reverse thrust, you would have the same result as a wheelchair has when one wheel is spun forward and one backward. Unquestionably a crash scenerio.
So lets drop speculation on the things that Also, since the aircraft landed at the problem is not and attempt to see what the problem is.
-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), October 31, 1999.
Sad news.It IS very "unusual" for the UP press to mention the link to Edwards AFB.
For the press lurking among us, you might want to turn the Edwards AFB odd story link over to the Lancaster, California locals.
Diane
(BTW, Ignore the trolls... they couldn't see something "odd" if it hit them between the eyes).
http://www.avpress.com/#newsAntelope Valley Press
Search
http:// www.avpress.com/Architext/qnews.htsThey cover stories about Edwards Air Force Base command at Eglin Air Force Base. But it looks like the best bet is to contact the newsroom folks... probably tomorrow.
Valley Press staff phone numbers and e-mail addresses
http://www.avpress.com/ vp/newsph.htmEditorial (news) staff members, their job titles and their business telephone numbers. All phone numbers are in U.S. Area Code 661 (formerly a part of Area Code 805).
Any member of the Valley Press news staff may be reached by e-mail through editor@avpress.com, a general delivery kind of facility for the entire newsroom.
News releases may be sent to editor@avpress.com.
Anderson, Dennis
Editor
(661) 267-4153
dennis.anderson@avpress.com
-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), October 31, 1999.
Aircraft, military and civilian, all use GMT NOT local time. Also, while I was listening to CNN they mentioned the fact that some overly exuberant reporter confused the ICAO desiginator for the airport the aircraft landed at in New Jersey with the designator for Edwards AFB. Both are similar except for one letter. This is not to say what caused the crash but simply to clear up some misconceived notions. We had a name for a person who "jumped the gun" before facts were verified. We called him "Captain Putfaroots"(Picks up the football and runs out of the stadium). It was not a term of endearment.
-- Neil G.Lewis (pnglewis1@yahoo.com), October 31, 1999.
This was just last week !!!!Sunday October 24, 11:43 PM Experts Probe Black Box For Clues To Jet Crash RAF experts are examining a black box recorder for clues to the cause of a jet crash in which two airmen were killed.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/991024/2/9tz0.html
-- kevin vaughan (kevin@kjvaughan.demon.co.uk), October 31, 1999.
Fact finder,There was apparently one defective glitch in a 767 in this previous incident...
"Prior to Sunday, at least three 767s been involved in serious crashes, including a LAUDA 767 that went down in Thailand in May 1991 after its thrust reversers were accidentally deployed in flight. All 223 aboard were killed in that crash."
[details]
Lauda Air Flight NG004 (Hong Kong - Bangkok - Vienna) took off from Bangkok at around 23:10h for it's 1132nd flight (and 7429th flying hour). Twelve minutes after take-off, the crew got a visual REV ISLN advisory warning. It indicated that 'an additional system failure might cause in-flight deployment ...' of the No.1 engine (Pratt & Whitney PW4060) thrust reverser. The crew didn't take immediate action, since the 767 Emergency/Malfunction Checklist said 'No action required'. Nine minutes later, shortly before reaching FL310, the No.1 thrust reverser deployed. The Boeing (named 'Mozart') stalled and crashed out of control. The aircraft disintgrated at 2000m; the fuselage crashed in the jungle at a 45 angle and exploded. One of the aircraft's wings was found 19km and the cockpit 1,5km from the main crash site. PROBALE CAUSE: "The Accident Investigation Committee of the Government of Thailand determines the probable cause of this accident to be uncommanded in-flight deployment of the left engine thrust reverser, which resulted in loss of flight path control. The specific cause of the thrust reverser deployment has not been positively identified.".
[unsnip]
I also think it more likely that there was an explosion, but I would not dismiss the possibility of a similar system malfunction in the reverse thrusters. If an aircraft of that size were to suddenly reverse engine(s) it would immediately fall off into a spin and drop like a rock, which would explain the nearly 400 ft./sec. rate of descent.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/329660.asp
No sign of life at EgyptAir crash site" ... The Boeing 767, a twin-engine, widebody passenger jet, has an excellent safety record, with only one major blemish on its record: A Lauda Air flight on May 26, 1991, in Thailand, which went down after one of its engine thrust reversers accidentally deployed during a climb, killing all 10 crew and 213 passengers.
LINK TO ANOTHER DOOMED JET
The EgyptAir 767 rolled off Boeing Co.s assembly line immediately before the Lauda 767 jetliner. Both planes were completed just days before Boeings aircraft assemblers went on strike, complaining of fatigue because they were forced to work too much overtime. A Boeing spokesman said the company knew of nothing to indicate the two crashes were related, but added, were going to look at every possible scenario.
----------------------------------------------------------
-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 01, 1999.
Regarding the Lauda flight, which appears to be very similar..If you're really interested in this, here's the actual accident report with all the exact details and voice recorder transcript. I found it very intriquing, but a bit too much to post here. They go into a lot of detail about the EEC (electronic engine control) system which is likely to have caused the reverser deployment, but they never really determined exactly why, and they were never sure that the problem would be remedied after they made some changes. It is pretty complex stuff, but perhaps an electronic engeineer out there can decipher it. Maybe we can put up some of the better parts.
http://www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de/~ladkin/Incidents/LaudaAir/L audaRPT.html
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), November 01, 1999.
On the news tonight, CBC was talking to some Egyptians. One was particularly upset, thought the 'accident' talk all spin. He said there were 18(?) Egyptian armed force personnel on board and that any accident wasn't one. Maybe that's the explanation for both Edward's news and denial - training Egyptian soldiers on US soil? Could also explain reason for sabotage.
-- T the C (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), November 01, 1999.
I heard a similar story Tricia - 18 Egyptian special forces soldiers heading home...
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), November 01, 1999.
Check out this link,I have asked them to investigate the above...
http://www.airdisaster.com/
-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), November 01, 1999.
11/1/99 -- 6:37 AMEgyptAir plane preceded doomed Lauda Air jet off Boeing
SEATTLE (AP) - The EgyptAir 767 that veered into the ocean off Nantucket Island was built alongside a Boeing 767 jetliner that crashed eight years ago in a Thailand jungle.
Both planes rolled off Boeing's Everett production line 10 years ago, just days before the company's aircraft assemblers went on strike, complaining of fatigue because they were forced to work too much overtime.
A Boeing spokesman said Sunday the company knew of nothing to indicate the two crashes were related, but added, ``we're going to look at every possible scenario.''
The 1991 Lauda Air crash occurred when a mechanism designed to brake the plane on the ground deployed in the air. The cause of Sunday's crash was not yet known.
The EgyptAir model 767-300ER, for extended range, was assembled in September 1989, the 282nd 767 to be built. The 767-300ER for Austria's Lauda Air - No. 283 - left the factory about two weeks later.
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group spokesman Doug Webb said the company has no reason to think anything was wrong with aircraft assembled at that time.
However, the planes were built during one of the most turbulent times in the company's history.
Union Machinists at Boeing went on strike on Oct. 4, 1989, as the aircraft builder was struggling to meet delivery schedules during a period of record aircraft orders. In addition to money, a major issue in the 48-day strike was the heavy amount of overtime required of production workers, many of whom complained of being too tired to do their jobs properly.
During the crush of work in the late 1980s, some of Boeing's largest customers complained about poor quality. Those carriers later praised the company for fixing the problems, however, and backed up the sentiment by ordering hundreds of more jets.
The struggles of the late 1980s led to a complete overhaul of Boeing's manufacturing, design and engineering processes, as well as the way the company worked with customers, employees and suppliers.
Both company and union officials have adamantly denied that aircraft could be sabotaged in the plant, saying there are too many safeguards and that any perpetrator would be easy to trace.
The 767, a twin-engine widebody, went into passenger use in September 1982 and is a workhorse on transatlantic routes. It has not had an unusually high accident rate, with only three fatal crashes - the third occurring when an Ethiopian Airlines jet ditched in the Comoros Islands in 1996 after being hijacked and running out of fuel.
Prior to Sunday's crash, the EgyptAir plane had completed more than 30,000 flight hours over the course of more than 6,900 flights.
Investigators had no indication of what caused the jet to suddenly dive from 33,000 feet into the Atlantic approximately 40 minutes after taking off on a flight from New York to Cairo.
The plane apparently had just reached cruising altitude. All 217 on board were believed killed.
The Lauda 767, which crashed on May 26, 1991, was climbing after taking off from Bangkok about 45 minutes earlier.
It had just passed 10,000 feet when the pilot and copilot spotted a warning light signifying a problem with the engine thrust reverser, a device that uses the power of the aircraft's two engines to brake the plane after it lands. On a 767, the reversers - one per engine - are engineered to activate only when the plane is on the ground.
Minutes later, as they were discussing what action to take, an engine reverser activated, sending the plane into an uncontrollable plunge.
The 233 passengers and crew were killed.
The accident stunned Boeing and the aviation industry because experts believed existing safeguards should have prevented it.
Although there was never any official explanation for the malfunction in the thrust reverser, investigators strongly suspected a flaw in the mechanism that controls it. Boeing redesigned the mechanism on subsequent 767 and 757 models. The company and the Federal Aviation Administration recommended airlines flying the jets make similar modifications.
Boeing's Webb said he believed that all the affected aircraft had gone through the retrofit, but the company was trying to confirm that.
Both the EgyptAir and Lauda planes were equipped with Pratt & Whitney 4080 engines.
Webb said it was far too early to speculate on what might have caused the EgyptAir accident. But he said any similarities between Sunday's disaster and the Thai crash would be explored.
``I think what we would do is look at the service record and maintenance record of the airplane, and obviously we're going to look at every possible scenario,'' he said.
Boeing was sending a team of experts to assist the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation, he said.
Tim Flynn, spokesman for Machinists' District Lodge 751 in Seattle, said: ``The Machinists union along with others will await the NTSB investigation in hopes they can find the cause of this terrible crash.''
-- bomb or computer (something@happened.upthere), November 01, 1999.
See thread...OT: Over 30 High Ranking Egyptian Military on Board Flight 990
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 001gWp
-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 01, 1999.
http://asia.yahoo.com/headlines/021199/world/941482680-91101185842.new sworld.htmlATLANTIC CORRIDOR FEARED NEW BERMUDA TRIANGLE
WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (AFP) - Four recent aviation accidents in the Atlantic Ocean involving planes leaving New York city raise questions about the safety of one of the world's busiest air corridors, but experts say the phenomenon is merely a coincidence.
The death toll is staggering, with nearly 680 people killed in the area in just over three years.
In July 1996, TWA flight 800, a Boeing 747, exploded a few minutes after take off, coming down in the waters off Long Island, killing 230 people.
In September 1998, a Boeing MD-11 crashed further north, near Halifax, Canada killing 229 people. In July, a Piper Saratoga piloted by John F. Kennedy, Jr. plunged into the ocean near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, killing him, his wife and her sister.
And on Sunday, the EgyptAir Boeing 767 plummeted into the same waters. EgyptAir chairman Mohamed Fahin Rayyan, said the coincidence was "strange," noting that the site of Sunday's accident was near the TWA accident and John F. Kennedy, Jr. tragedies.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that the two accidents in the same area make his question whether or not the air routes should be changed.
"There may be something in the atmosphere or weather conditions may be sometimes very tough there," he said, dismissing the possibility of a terrorist act.
"So I think it should be investigated by the United States and if it is needed to change the routes, the airways, depending on the discussions and the assessment of the situation in this part of the world."
Coincidence or not, three of the fatal flights started at New York's Kennedy airport. The downed Piper was piloted by a Kennedy, further raising the question of a "Kennedy curse."
"It is pure coincidence," said the International Air Transport Association, Pierre Jeanniot, saying that the high volume of traffic near New York raises the number of accidents there.
Every day, more than a thousand flights and 100,000 passengers take off from John F. Kennedy airport. Two other large international airports, Newark and La Guardia also serve New York and send flights into the same corridor.
"If they had just all suddenly disappeared, for no reason, obviously that would be something else," said Rudy Kapustin, a former investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. "But it's not the case."
James McKenna, transportation and safety editor for the trade magazine, Aviation Week, challenged the notion of a new "Bermuda triangle," an area noted for the disappearance of many aircraft.
"Each accident involved a different aircraft type." he said. "They were all at different point in the sky when they encountered problems. They encountered different types of problems."
"While it may raise some questions in people's minds, I am sure those questions would produce answers that there was nothing wrong with the airspace or the airport," he said.
"I am certain that the FBI once again will be going over its records of the TWA 800 crash and the Swissair crash to see perhaps if they missed something," he continued. "Maybe there is a common element.
They will be checking that but I doubt there will find something."
-- everybody is noticing (strange@body.count), November 02, 1999.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/thruster991103.htmlANOTHER ENGINE PROBLEM
Jet Delayed in Canada When Thrust Reverser Left Open
Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 ERs can be seen at the Bangkok airport. A Lauda Air plane slammed into a jungle hilltop in Thailand in 1991 after its thrust reversers deployed while in flight. (Reuters)
Nov. 3 A Boeing 767 passenger jet flying from Germany to Mexico had to stop for unscheduled work on one of its thrust reversers Tuesday, ABCNEWS has learned.
The safety of thrust 767 thrust reversers mechanisms that in effect redirect the power of jet engines in order to help aircraft slow down when they land has recently been called into question, although no cause has been determined for the crash of an EgyptAir 767 off the coast of Massachusetts Sunday. All 217 people aboard were killed.
ABCNEWS.com has learned that the Federal Aviation Administration has issued at least 10 directives requiring changes to thrust reversers or to their maintenance procedures on all Boeing 767s. (See related story.)
In Tuesdays incident, the jet, operated by Lauda Air for LTU, a German charter airline, was landing at Gander, Newfoundland, for a scheduled refueling stop at about 3 p.m. local time, when the crew noticed a light on that indicated the left engine thrust reverser had not stowed properly, Canadian and German aviation officials told ABCNEWS today.
After a jet aircraft has touched the ground during a landing, the thrust reversers are deployed to help slow down the aircraft quickly. The thrust reversers redirect the flow of exhaust exiting the aircrafts engines. (ABCNEWS.com)
Ground crew workers found the thrust reverser for the left engine jammed open three centimeters, or just over an inch. Ogden/Allied Aviation services mechanics worked on the problem and locked the thrust reverser closed, company officials told ABCNEWS.
Because of a delay in departure of the flight, LT416, from Dusseldorf, Germany, and the work on the thrust reverser, the flight crew had reached their time limit for cockpit duty, and a new crew had to be flown in. The jet took off again at 8 this morning and proceeded without incident to Cancun, Mexico.
Relief, Not Anger
The passengers were relieved rather than angry about the repairs, airport officials said. There were 214 passengers and nine crew members aboard.
A Lauda Air 767 crashed in 1991 in Thailand, killing 223 people after what authorities later said was a malfunction of an engine thrust reverser.
Thrust reversers act like brakes. On the ground, they help slow a plane to a stop after landing. But if one is accidentally activated in flight, it could make an aircraft quickly spin out of control.
EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the sea off Nantucket, Mass., on Sunday. Officials at the National Transportation Safety Board said they have not ruled out a thrust reverser problem or anything else as the probable cause.
-- planes have problems (nofly@time.zone), November 03, 1999.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/03/egyptair.03/November 3, 1999
NEWPORT, Rhode Island (CNN) -- New radar data reveal EgyptAir Flight 990 started to climb after dropping to 17,000 feet in a matter of seconds, but then entered its fatal plunge, apparently breaking up before crashing into the sea, officials said Wednesday.
"After descending from 33,000 feet to 16,000 feet, the aircraft climbed back to 24,000 feet. The aircraft then entered a rapid descent," said John Clark, National Transportation Safety Board radar specialist.
The radar data's last record of the plane is at 10,000 feet.
Preliminary analysis of the radar data appeared to back up the conclusion that the plane broke up before it hit the ocean, Clark said, but he refused to speculate on what the new information would mean to investigators or to the consideration of thrust reversers as a possible suspect in the crash.
-- lot to think about (real@problem.standup), November 03, 1999.
This disinformation is incredible. They expect us to believe the thing fell 17,000 ft. at rate of 400 ft. sec, and then it climbed back up 8,000 ft.?? That is one hell of a plane.I could buy the story about the thrust reverser, but these jokers must think we are fucking idiots now to be trying to sell this crap on us.
-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), November 04, 1999.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - The final moments of EgyptAir Flight 990 were a harrowing roller coaster ride through the night sky, with radar data showing the jet plunged 17,000 feet before climbing, diving again and finally breaking apart over the Atlantic.The scenario, presented Wednesday night by National Transportation Safety Board officials, was in contrast to an earlier review of radar tapes which indicated the plane plummeted straight down from 33,000 feet over a span of two minutes.
The disaster early Sunday 60 miles off the coast of Massachusetts' Nantucket Island killed all 217 aboard. Its cause has not been determined.
John Clark, deputy director of the NTSB's Office of Research and Engineering, said an Air Force analysis of the radar provided a glimpse of the final seconds of the Boeing 767, which crashed a half-hour after leaving New York for Cairo.
The 17,000-foot dive occurred in a straight line within 40 seconds, at a ground speed of 600 knots or 690 mph, the NTSB said.
After its initial plunge, Clark said the plane pulled up at 16,000 feet and rose to 24,000 feet. It then plunged again to about 10,000 feet, where it appeared to have broken into pieces, the NTSB said.
Clark said he did not know the cause of the climb, and refused to speculate on whether it was a catastrophic event on board or whether the pilots were struggling to control the aircraft.
-- not fun flight (more@than.bump), November 04, 1999.