EgyptAir 990:The Crash That Gave bin Laden the Idea for 9/11

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MYS434: Just after 1:20 in the morning on October 31, 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 lifted off from JFK bound for Cairo with 217 people aboard. 30 minutes later it was gone. No distress call, no storm, no other traffic anywhere near it, and 33,000 feet of clear night air between the airplane and the Atlantic.

The Coast Guard found an oil slick and a small debris field about 60 miles south of Nantucket. Almost everything else had to be lifted off the seafloor over the following weeks.

Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli go through what happened to EgyptAir Flight 990, and the odd fact that two national governments studied identical evidence and could not agree on what any of it meant.

Both sides accepted the flight data. The recorder logged about 150 separate measurements and nobody disputed a single one. The fight was over meaning, and it came down to a short Arabic prayer that the relief first officer, Gameel Al-Batouti, said over and over as the jet went down: Tawakkalt ala Allah, “I rely on God.”

Said by a frightened man watching his airplane fall, it’s a plea. Said by a man who has already made up his mind, it’s something else entirely. Same syllables. The cockpit voice recorder transcript could not settle which one it was, and neither government could listen to the audio together and agree on the tone.

Jimmy tests four theories against what the black boxes recorded. An evasive maneuver to dodge a midair collision. A bomb in the tail, which is what almost everyone assumed about TWA 800 three years earlier. A mechanical failure in the 767’s elevator system, which is the case Egypt’s own investigators built and defended for years. And a deliberate act by the man at the controls.

Each theory has to account for the same sequence: the autopilot switching off, the throttles coming back, the nose dropping, both engines shutting down one after the other, and the two elevators splitting in opposite directions while the captain shouted “pull with me.”

Then there’s the part that surfaced 12 years later. When American forces raided bin Laden’s compound in 2011, they recovered a page of his own handwriting under the heading “The Birth of the Idea of September 11.” What he wrote there is why a 1999 crash belongs on an episode releasing on September 11th, and why “did EgyptAir 990 inspire 9/11” has a longer answer than yes or no.

Also here: why the FBI was running background checks on all 217 passengers within hours of the crash, what the Egyptian government’s own psychiatrist concluded about the first officer, and why an American journalist climbed into a 767 simulator and flew the dive himself.

Plus your feedback on episode 423, Mel’s Hole, with Washington lava tubes, the late Art Bell, and Jimmy on how to argue with a theory built so that nothing could ever disprove it.

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Chapters:

  • 0:00:12 – Intro
  • 0:00:42 – The Setup: A Clear Night Over the Atlantic
  • 0:01:40 – Jimmy’s Connection to the Story
  • 0:03:05 – The Airplane: A Boeing 767 Named Tutmose III
  • 0:04:38 – EgyptAir’s Safety Record
  • 0:05:12 – What the News Knew That First Day
  • 0:07:04 – Vanished From the Radar
  • 0:07:59 – Three Cities Waiting
  • 0:09:57 – Where the Flight Came From
  • 0:10:59 – The Weather That Night
  • 0:11:11 – The Search and the Cold Water
  • 0:13:09 – A Recovery, Not a Rescue
  • 0:14:41 – The Black Boxes Come Up
  • 0:15:05 – Who Was on Board
  • 0:18:11 – Who Was Flying the Plane
  • 0:18:56 – The Investigation and the Two Recorders
  • 0:20:18 – Why the Translation Mattered
  • 0:21:32 – The Investigation Takes a Turn
  • 0:23:30 – Washington and Cairo Collide
  • 0:25:54 – “I Rely on God”: The Phrase at the Center
  • 0:27:51 – Thank you to Patrons
  • 0:28:24 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
  • 0:28:42 – Sponsor: In Time by Robert Young
  • 0:29:37 – Sponsorship Opportunities
  • 0:30:21 – Theories: Four Explanations
  • 0:31:07 – Reason Perspective: What the Recorder Showed
  • 0:34:26 – Theory 1: An Evasive Maneuver
  • 0:35:25 – Theory 2: A Bomb
  • 0:36:34 – Theory 3: Mechanical Failure
  • 0:38:32 – Theory 4: A Deliberate Act, Egypt’s Case
  • 0:40:21 – Cross-Examining the Deliberate-Act Theory
  • 0:42:15 – Was This Terrorism?
  • 0:42:53 – A Possible Motive
  • 0:46:00 – How Certain Is the Theory?
  • 0:47:12 – The Legacy of Flight 990
  • 0:47:55 – The September 11th Connection
  • 0:49:33 – Did Flight 990 Cause 9/11?
  • 0:50:21 – Faith Perspective
  • 0:50:55 – Bottom Line
  • 0:51:51 – Further Resources
  • 0:52:20 – Mysterious Feedback: #423 Mel’s Hole
  • 0:59:37 – Your mysterious feedback
  • 1:00:12 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
  • 1:00:27 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
  • 1:01:00 – Next Time: Veridical Near-Death Experiences
  • 1:01:19 – Get your Mysterious merch
  • 1:01:34 – Show notes
  • 1:01:42 – Become a Patron
  • 1:01:50 – Sponsor: Gravetending Solutions
  • 1:02:28 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
  • 1:02:52 – Outro

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