Fact check
Is it true: EgyptAir 990 deliberate-crash dispute (Oct 31 1999)?
Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.
The claim is that relief First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti deliberately crashed EgyptAir 990 rather than a mechanical failure causing it. Partly supported. The NTSB (Mar 2002) gave the probable cause as the relief first officer's flight control inputs and found no failure condition in the elevator system that would explain the dive; Boeing likewise found no mechanical failure that fit the data. That part is well established. Intent is not: the NTSB said the reason for his actions was not determined and reached no conclusion on intent or motivation, no motive has been established, and Egypt's ECAA disputes the deliberate-act theory, arguing that a right-elevator actuator fault may have caused the dive. The NTSB's tests of failure scenarios did not bear that alternative out.
The claim
EgyptAir Flight 990 was brought down on 31 October 1999 by its relief first officer, Gameel Al-Batouti, who deliberately put the Boeing 767 into a dive, rather than by a mechanical failure. Egypt's government rejects this and points instead to a possible fault in the aircraft's elevator control system.
Key evidence
CVR: Al-Batouti said 'Tawakkalt ala Allah' 11 times before and during dive
ECAA: right-elevator actuator (PCA) malfunction as an alternative cause
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