Spin City: Egypt Buys and Sells a New Crash Tale

By SALLY B. DONNELLY

What's a country to do when bad news is going to slam its national airline? Hire some Washington spinners and aviation consultants, if the investigation into EgyptAir Flight 990 is anything to go by. After the National Transportation Safety Board reached a preliminary analysis that the crash that killed 217 in October was caused by a suicidal co-pilot, GAMIL EL-BATOUTI, Egypt applied political pressure in Washington and is spending freely on a public relations effort. A slew of experts were hired to press the issue for EgyptAir, including former NTSB chairman CARL VOGT and several former NTSB investigative specialists. Those hires paid off last week, when Aviation Week claimed U.S. investigators were doubting the suicide theory and instead were looking at mechanical failures as the key cause. "That is pure baloney," says a U.S. government official familiar with the NTSB's work. "We have looked at everything exhaustively, and we are extremely confident of our work."

--By Sally B. Donnelly