Aircraft Accident Brief Ntsb/aab-02/01 (Pb2002-910401): Egypt Air Flight 990, Boeing 767-366er, Su-Gap - National Transportation Safety Board Page 10
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At 0148:03, the command captain stated, “Excuse me, [nickname for relief first officer],
while I take a quick trip to the toilet…before it gets crowded. While they are eating, and
I’ll be back to you.” While the command captain was speaking, the relief first officer
responded, “Go ahead please,” and the CVR recorded the sound of an electric seat motor
as the captain maneuvered to leave his seat and the cockpit. At 0148:18.55, the CVR
recorded a sound similar to the cockpit door operating.
At 0148:30, about 11 seconds after the captain left the cockpit, the CVR recorded
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an unintelligible comment.
Ten seconds later (about 0148:40), the relief first officer
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stated quietly, “I rely on God.”
There were no sounds or events recorded by the flight
recorders that would indicate that an airplane anomaly or other unusual circumstance
preceded the relief first officer’s statement, “I rely on God.”
At 0149:18, the CVR recorded the sound of an electric seat motor. FDR data
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indicated that, at 0149:45 (27 seconds later), the autopilot was disconnected.
Aside from
the very slight movement of both elevators (the left elevator moved from about a 0.7° to
about a 0.5° nose-up deflection, and the right elevator moved from about a 0.35° nose-up
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to about a 0.3° nose-down deflection)
and the airplane’s corresponding slight nose-down
pitch change, which were recorded within the first second after autopilot disconnect, and a
very slow (0.5° per second) left roll rate, the airplane remained essentially in level flight
about FL 330 for about 8 seconds after the autopilot was disconnected. At 0149:48, the
relief first officer again stated quietly, “I rely on God.” At 0149:53, the throttle levers were
moved from their cruise power setting to idle, and, at 0149:54, the FDR recorded an
abrupt nose-down elevator movement and a very slight movement of the inboard ailerons.
Subsequently, the airplane began to rapidly pitch nose down and descend.
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The context of this statement indicates that the relief first officer was talking to the command first
officer and that the “new first officer” to whom the relief first officer was referring was a pilot who had been
in the cockpit earlier in the flight and who was seated in the cabin at the time of this statement. (According to
the Cockpit Voice Recorder Group Chairman’s Factual Report, an Arabic-speaking member of the Cockpit
Voice Recorder Group identified the voices of six flight crewmembers and one flight attendant recorded in
the cockpit at various times during the accident flight.)
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According to the CVR transcript, “the five Arabic speaking members of the [CVR] group concur that
they do not recognize this as an Arabic word, words, or phrase. The entire group agrees that three syllables
are heard and the accent is on the second syllable. Four Arabic speaking group members believe that they
heard words similar to ‘control it.’ One English speaking member believes that he heard a word similar to
‘hydraulic.’ The five other members believe that the word(s) were unintelligible.” For additional
information regarding the computer analysis of this comment, see the section titled, “Cockpit Voice
Recorder.”
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This phrase (recorded on the CVR in Arabic as “Tawakkalt Ala Allah”) was originally interpreted to
mean “I place my fate in the hands of God.” The interpretation of this Arabic statement was later amended to
“I rely on God.” According to an EgyptAir and ECAA presentation to Safety Board staff on April 28, 2000,
this phrase “is very often used by the Egyptian layman in day to day activities to ask God’s assistance for the
task at hand.”
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No autopilot disconnect warning tone was heard on the CVR recording. According to the system
design, an autopilot disconnect warning is generated unless the autopilot is disconnected manually, either by
clicking the control yoke-mounted autopilot disconnect switch twice within 0.5 second or by moving the
autopilot switch on the instrument panel.
NTSB/AAB-02/01
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