NTSB Advisory
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
March 23, 2000

EGYPTAIR FLIGHT 990 UPDATE

The following is a statement by National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall:

The recovery of additional wreckage from EgyptAir flight 990 has been postponed until the end of the month. The Carolyn Chouest is in stand down for repairs and is expected to leave port no earlier than March 28. Once it begins, the recovery operation will take up to 10 days to complete.

As you may know, the Safety Board asked the U.S. Navy's Supervisor of Salvage and Diving to recover the remaining engine and, if possible, additional flight control components. This effort is being undertaken to ensure that investigators will have access to all available wreckage and information that may assist them in determining the cause of the October 31, 1999 crash.

Now that the strike at Boeing Aircraft Company involving professional engineers and technicians has ended, we are able to proceed with simulator testing that was originally planned prior to the strike. The tests are expected to begin next week.

One series of tests will consist of simulations using data from the accident airplane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. Another group of tests will involve simulating various mechanical system failure modes and monitoring the results. A third group of tests will involve creating mechanical failures on a Boeing 767 on the ground and monitoring the results.

The NTSB continues to work with the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority, Egypt's accredited representative to the Board's investigation under Annex 13 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, to gather factual information that may help explain the tragic loss of this aircraft. The NTSB has reached no conclusions as to the cause of this crash. It is hoped that these tests will provide a better understanding of what happened on October 31, 1999.

NTSB Press Officer: Keith Holloway, (202) 314-6100