Most of the rest were believed to be Americans, including two tour groups, one of them a 54-person contingent sponsored by Boston-based Grand Circle Travel. By late afternoon, 185 families had been notified of the crash, authorities at Kennedy Airports said.ĮgyptAir said the passengers included 62 Egyptians, three Syrians, two Sudanese and a Chilean. and Egyptian authorities listed 199 passengers aboard EgyptAir 990, including two infants, along with 15 crew members and three non-paying EgyptAir employees. Boeing spokeswoman Debbie Nomaguchi said it was "way to early" to look for a causal link between the two tragedies. The EgyptAir 767 was built in 1989 and came off Boeing's Everett, Wash., assembly line about two weeks before another 767 that crashed in a jungle in Thailand, killing 217 passengers. Larrabee said the Kings Pointer, a vessel operated by the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, found the plane's oil slick early Sunday and recovered one dead body, two partially inflated life-rafts, empty life vests, pieces of seats, clothing and various bits of paper and other paraphernalia, including passports.Ĭoast Guard authorities said both human remains and debris would be taken to a military facility at Quonset, R.I., where the National Transportation Safety Board will reassemble the aircraft. Only then will investigators be able to begin looking for the two so-called "black box" flight recording devices that might give them clues to EgyptAir 990's fate. The Coast Guard warned, however, that it was doubtful anyone could survive for more than 12 hours in the 58-degree waters at the crash site.Īn underwater investigation was expected to begin late Monday with the arrival of the Navy salvage ship, USS Grapple, and a team of Navy divers. Search conditions were optimal, with negligible wind and seas and visibility at nine miles.
The aircraft broke off the search at dusk, but the ships lingered in the area. By mid-afternoon, there were 11 aircraft and four cutters combing the area, Coast Guard Adm. in 270 feet of water, about 60 miles south of Nantucket.Ĭoast Guard cutters and military aircraft scrambled from bases up and down the east coast to initiate a systematic surface search. Hall said controllers watched radar images for an additional minute before the plane disappeared from the screen and crashed at 1:52 a.m. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall said controllers heard a "routine" communication from EgyptAir 990 at 1:43 a.m., and took an altitude reading of 33,000 feet at 1:50 a.m.īut in the next 36 seconds the plane dropped precipitously to 19,100 feet, a rate of descent of 23,200 feet per minute. (EST) Sunday, refueled and took off for Cairo at 1:19 a.m. The flight originated in Los Angeles, reached New York's Kennedy Airport at 12:48 a.m. officials said there was no indication of foul play in the crash of EgyptAir flight 990, but the FBI, as well as police from various jurisdictions, were opening investigations into the plane's passengers and cargo. Searchers found debris and human remains, but no survivors. Video and audio broadcasts of news, reaction and the search effort surrounding the Sunday morning crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 (AP)Īn EgyptAir 767 jetliner flying from New York to Cairo plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket Island early Sunday with 217 people aboard, among them dozens of American tourists. Wreckage has been found 60 miles south of Nantucket Island.
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