-Caveat Lector-
Jet missing off Massachusetts coast
Coast Guard searching for EgyptAir flight after contact lost
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON, Oct. 31 � A Boeing 767 passenger plane disappeared about 60 miles
south of Nantucket after taking off from JFK Airport in New York, the Coast
Guard says.
EGYPTAIR FLIGHT 990 was headed to Cairo, Egypt, Coast Guard Lt. Rob
Halsey said. It originated in Los Angeles, according to EgyptAir officials at
Cairo International Airport.
There were 197 passengers on the flight, an EgyptAir official said.
�What we have right now is, we weren�t able to establish contact,�
Halsey said. �They had them on radar and then lost the radar picture.�
Flight 990 took off from Kennedy at 1:19 a.m. and disappeared from
radar at 2 a.m. while flying at 33,000 feet, said Eliot Brenner, chief
spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington.
The Coast Guard sent every available cutter and aircraft in the
Northeast to join the search, plus airplanes from far away as Elizabeth City,
N.C., said spokesman Jim McPherson.
Egyptian television quoted EgyptAir officials as saying that after the
flight left Los Angeles it made a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in
California before continuing on to Kennedy. However, there was no immediate
confirmation from Edwards.
According to FAA officials in Washington, the plane�s takeoff from
Kennedy was delayed by two hours because it arrived late from Los Angeles.
FEAR FOR LOVED ONES
At Cairo Airport, relatives and friends gathered to await news.
Imad Kassab trembled with hope when he discovered that his
brother-in-law, Essam Bahjat, was not on the passenger list for the flight as
he had feared. Kassab, owner of the Cairo branch of the U.S.-based restaurant
Cheesecake Factory, quickly called friends and relatives.
EgyptAir has a fleet of 38 planes and flies to some 85 airports around
the world.
Critics have called for the privatization of the company, one of the
oldest in Africa and the Middle East, amid reports of bad management and bad
service.
A STURDY RECORD
The Boeing 767 is a twin-engine, widebody passenger jet that went into
passenger use in September 1982, when the first one was delivered to United
Airlines. As of April 1, Boeing had received 865 orders for the 767 and
delivered 746 airplanes.
One of the planes crashed on May 26, 1991, when a Lauda Air 767-300ER
crashed near Suphan Buri Province, Thailand.
The Lauda airplane lost control and crashed after one of its engine
thrust reversers accidentally deployed during a climb. The jet lost 25
percent to 30 percent of its lift and plunged out of control into the ground,
killing all 10 crew and 213 passengers.
In addition, an Ethiopian Airlines 767-200ER crashed near Moroni,
Comoros, on Nov. 23, 1996, while attempting to land after being hijacked. The
aircraft had been on a flight from Ethiopia to Kenya.
Ten of the 12 crew members and 117 of the 160 passengers were
killed. The three hijackers apparently died.
The United States airline industry went through a fatality-free year
in 1998, but this year there has been the crash of an American Airlines jet
in Little Rock, Ark. The aviation world has also been shadowed by the loss of
John F. Kennedy�s private plane off Martha�s Vineyard this summer and last
week�s crash of a Learjet carrying golfer Payne Stewart.
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