Egyptian Official Heads to US for EgyptAir Crash ReportEgypt's Civil Aviation Authority Chairman Abdel Fatah Katto left here on Tuesday for New York to discuss with US investigators a report on the crash of an EgyptAir passenger plane in October 1999.The two sides will try to "develop a strategy of cooperation" before the publication of the report, Katto said before departure. The report about the causes of the crash is expected to be issued in March by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is in charge of the investigations, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported. The NTSB has suspected Gamil al-Battuti, the Boeing 767 flight's co-pilot, of intentionally nosediving the plane off the Rhode Island coast after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The suicide allegation was rejected angrily by the Egyptians, who blamed a mechanical problem in the plane's elevator system for the crash. Egypt insists that the crash, which killed all 217 people on board off the eastern coast of the U.S., could not result from a human mistake by a crew member. |
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