Navy divers head to site of crashed jet
By Pat Milton
The Associated Press
NEWPORT, R.I.—With a break
in the weather, a Navy salvage
ship was finally freed Thursday to
take its divers on a 10-hour trip
through high waves to the grim
crash site of EgyptAir Flight 990.
Investigators were hoping to
dodge foul weather long enough Fri
day to search for the plane’s “black
boxes,” which they hope hold the
secret to the cause of the crash off the
coast of Nantucket, Mass.
The Navy was relying on seas to
calm just enough to drop a giant
underwater robet — the Deep
Drone — into the Atlantic, where
it can be lowered 270 feet to the
ocean floor to retrieve wreckage
and bodies. Divers aboard the USS
Grapple will try to make the
treacherous journey as well.
The black boxes—the flight data
recorder and the cockpit voice
recorder — are considered keys to
figuring out why Flight 990 plum
meted into to the ocean on Sunday,
killing all 217 on board.
Without them, the National
Transportation Safety Board was
investigating all possibilities,
learning what it could from radar
data and cargo manifests.
NTSB Chairman James Hall
said nothing hazardous was ap
parently in the cargo holds.
He also said there were not two
armed guards on the plane, despite
a policy of the airline to sometimes
have them aboard. And he added
that 30 Egyptian military person
nel were required to go through
metal detectors before boarding the
plane in New York.
The NTSB said it has already
begun studying the possibility of
human error in the crash.
A special team of investigators
will continue to look into the back
grounds of the flight crew, includ
ing how they spent the last days be
fore they climbed into the cockpit.
If the seas permit, the Grapple
will likely finish its journey to the
crash site early Friday morning.
Navy officials warned that the ship
might be forced to turn around if
the sea swells are too strong.
The forecast calls for rough seas
from late Friday until Sunday;
Navy Rear Adm, William G.
Sutton said he would not risk us
ing divers if the seas were too
rough Friday.
“My number one concern here
... is the safety of these young men
and women who are going to be
out on scene conducting this in
credibly dangerous event,” he
said. “We do not want to increase
this tragedy any more than it al
ready is.”
A second ship, the Mohawk, a
Navy vessel equipped with spe
cial sonar and remote operated ro
bots, was also sent out to sea late
Thursday.
Rough seas and high winds
have kept divers away from the
crash site since Tuesday.
Large pieces of wreckage would
likely stay put some 250 feet below
water despite the storms, the safety
board has said. But smaller pieces
of debris and human remains
could travel anywhere up to sever
al miles underwater, said Eric
Takakjian, a private salvage diver
not connected with the search.
“A heavy surge will definitely
move things around,” Takakjian
said. “It’s going to make things
even harder.”
Also Thursday:
— Some progress was reported
in the state medical examiner’s of
fice, where investigators began the
painstaking process of identifying
the remains retrieved so far. Fami
lies have been providing dental
records and details that would
help distinguish their loved ones,
including birth marks or jewelry.
— Jamie Finch, an NTSB
spokesman, said investigators
planned this weekend to allow
victims’ relatives to view some of
the wreckage that had been
brought ashore.
—FBI investigators were analyz
ing what the crew of a lobster boat
heard—and perhaps as important,
what they apparently did not see—
on the morning of the crash.
Lobsterman Christopher D. Lu
tyens said he was on the 75-foot
boat the “Hedy Brenna” when he
and two of his crew members heard
a noise he now believes was Flight
990 hitting the water. He said he
thinks he was about 5 1/2 miles
east-northeast of the initial debris
field, but didn’t know a plane was
down when he heard the sound.
“I just heard a loud crash that
sounded different than anything
I’ve ever heard before,” he said in
an interview at his Jamestown
home. He initially wrote off the
noise, which he said lasted about
three seconds, as a roar of thunder.
Lutyens said he saw nothing in
the sky—no explosion or fireballs.
What that means remains un
clear. Ed Crawley, head of the De
partment of Aeronautics and As
tronautics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, said it
doesn’t rule out a fire or explosion.
— A small memorial service
was held for the more than a
dozen Coptic Christians, members
of an Egyptian Christian denomi
nation, who were on the flight.
The Rev. Marcus Girgis told
mourners not to worry if the bod
ies of their loved ones are not
found intact.
“The soul never dies. It will
unite again with the body regard
less what condition the body is
in,” he said, as some eight rela
tives and friends wept.
A memorial service for all faiths
was scheduled for Sunday.
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