Egypt to Refute U.S. Draft Report on EgyptAir Flight CrashEgypt will refute a draft report issued by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on the EgyptAir flight crash in 1999, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported on Saturday.The remarks were made by Mohammad Fahim Rayyan, chairman of the Egyptian national carrier, adding that the Egyptian side will give its reply to the draft within 60 days, including full analysis of every item mentioned by the U.S.. Rayyan rejected the NTSB's theory that the suicide by the co- pilot, Gamil al-Battuti, has caused the plane to crash off the Rhode Island coast after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing all 217 people on board. He said that all indicators show that conditions inside the cockpit were going on smoothly and normally before and during the incident. EgyptAir has called for investigators to take into consideration the possibility of a mechanical problem in the altitude control system of the Boeing 767 plane involved in the accident. EgyptAir insists that similar altitude control problem has been seen in Boeing 767s in the past, adding that many other reasons remains to be determined to be or not to be the causes of the tragedy. |
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