Gameel Al-Batouti ( ar, جميل البطوطي; also rendered "Gamil El Batouti" or "El Batouty" in U.S. official reports; 2 February 1940 – 31 October 1999) was a
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
for
EgyptAir and a former officer for the
Egyptian Air Force. On 31 October 1999, he murdered all 216 passengers and crew on board
EgyptAir Flight 990
EgyptAir Flight 990 (MS990/MSR990) was a regularly scheduled flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Cairo International Airport, with a stop at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City. On October 31, 1999, the Boeing 767-3 ...
and then committed suicide. The plane then crashed into the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
about southeast of
Nantucket Island
Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. The US
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded and stated that the crash was caused by a series of deliberate flight control inputs to the aircraft made by Al-Batouti, while being alone in the cockpit and in the position of
relief first officer
In-flight crew relief (commonly referred in noun form as the relief aircrew, relief flight crew, or just relief crew), is a term used in commercial aviation when referring to the members of an aircrew intended to temporarily relieve active crew mem ...
. The NTSB went on to state that the reason for his inputs were "not determined".
Early life
Al-Batouti was born in the farming community of Kafr al-Dabusi,
Dakahlia Governorate
Dakahlia Governorate ( ar, محافظة الدقهلية ', ) is an Egyptian governorate lying northeast of Cairo. Its area is approximately 3,500 km2. Although the capital of the governorate is Mansoura, it got its name from the ancient to ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
. His father was a mayor and a landowner, and family members were well educated and affluent.
[
]
Career
Al-Batouti had been conscripted into the Egyptian Air Force, where he was trained as a pilot and flight instructor
A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...
. He then worked for a time as an instructor at the Egypt Aviation Academy. His position there was described by one colleague as "high profile."[
While in the Air Force, Al-Batouti served as a pilot in both the 1967 ]Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
and the 1973 Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
.
Al-Batouti was hired by EgyptAir on 8 September 1987. He held type ratings for the Boeing 737-200
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...
, Boeing 767-200
The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified on ...
and the 767-300. At the time of the crash, he had logged 12,538 hours of flight time, with 5,755 as pilot in command
The pilot in command (PIC) of an aircraft is the person aboard the aircraft who is ultimately responsible for its operation and safety during flight. This would be the captain in a typical two- or three- pilot aircrew, or "pilot" if there is on ...
and 5,191 in the 767.[
Al-Batouti was approaching ]mandatory retirement
Mandatory retirement also known as forced retirement, enforced retirement or compulsory retirement, is the set age at which people who hold certain jobs or offices are required by industry custom or by law to leave their employment, or retire.
As ...
(aviation regulations prevented him from flying as a commercial airline pilot after age 60), and had planned to split his time between a 10-bedroom villa outside of Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
and a beach house near El Alamein.[
At the time of his death, Al-Batouti was the most senior first officer flying the 767 at EgyptAir. He was not promoted to captain because he declined to sit for the exam for his ]Airline Transport Pilot Licence
The airline transport pilot license (ATPL), or in the United States of America, an airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate is the highest level of aircraft pilot certificate. In the United States, those certified as airline transport pilots ...
(ATPL) rating. The ATPL study materials and exam are conducted in English, the international language of aviation, and Al-Batouti did not have sufficient English proficiency. Once he reached 55, the possibility of promotion was further hindered by EgyptAir policy which prevented promotions after that age. According to statements made by his colleagues to the NTSB during the Flight 990 investigation, he did not want to be promoted because, as senior first officer, he could get his preferred flight schedules, which assisted with his family situation. Despite not being promoted to captain, he was often called by that title because of his previous experience at the Egypt Aviation Academy.[
]
Flight 990
While Al-Batouti was momentarily alone in the cockpit when Captain Ahmed El-Habashi went to the lavatory, the aircraft suddenly went into a rapid dive nose-first, resulting in weightlessness
Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G.
Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fie ...
(zero-g) throughout the cabin. Despite this, Captain El-Habashi was able to fight the lack of gravity and re-enter the cockpit. The speed of the 767 was now dangerously close to breaking the sound barrier and entering mach speed, exceeding its design limits and beginning to weaken its airframe. The captain pulled back on his control column and applied full power to the engines, but neither action had any effect due to the aircraft's speed and the engines having been shut down. The captain then deployed the speedbrake
In aeronautics, air brakes or speed brakes are a type of flight control surface used on an aircraft to increase the drag on the aircraft. Air brakes differ from spoilers in that air brakes are designed to increase drag while making litt ...
s, which slowed the aircraft's dive, bringing it back to a safer speed. However, these abrupt maneuvers resulted in the aircraft entering a steep climb, causing g-forces to push the passengers and crew into their seats. Both engines then stopped completely, causing the aircraft to lose all electrical power and both flight recorders to stop at this point. The aircraft then fell into another steep dive and huge mechanical stress
In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity. It is a quantity that describes the magnitude of forces that cause deformation. Stress is defined as ''force per unit area''. When an object is pulled apart by a force it will cause elonga ...
caused the left engine to separate from the wing. The aircraft began to break apart in midair at and debris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at 1:52 am EST. All 217 people on board were killed.
Some of Al-Batouti's final recorded words on the cockpit voice recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...
(CVR) were "Tawkalt ala Allah" ( ar, توكلت على الله), which can be translated as "I rely on God", 11 times. This phrase can also be interpreted as "I ''entrust'' myself unto God," hinting that he knew he was facing death, giving credence to the theory that he deliberately crashed the aircraft.
Investigators learned from another pilot that Al-Batouti was supposedly reprimanded for repeated inappropriate behaviour with female guests at the Hotel Pennsylvania
The Hotel Pennsylvania was a historic hotel at 401 Seventh Avenue (15 Penn Plaza) in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden in New York City. Opened in 1919, it was once the largest hotel in the world. ...
, a New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
hotel often used by EgyptAir crews. Hatem Roushdy, the EgyptAir official said to be responsible for the alleged reprimand, was a passenger on Flight 990. Investigators confirmed that shortly before the flight, Roushdy revoked Al-Batouti's privilege of flying to the United States and informed him that Flight 990 would be his last on the route.
The Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority
The Ministry of Civil Aviation of Egypt (MCA, ar, وزارة الطيران المدني) is the ministry in charge of civil aviation in Egypt.
Duties
The ministry sets civil aviation regulations, sets airworthiness and all flight rules, and ai ...
disputes the cause of the crash, blaming mechanical problems rather than any action of Al-Batouti.
There was Western media speculation that Al-Batouti may have been a terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
, although his family and friends indicated that he had no strong political beliefs.[
]
Personal life
Al-Batouti was married and had five children. The youngest, a daughter who was 10 at the time of the crash, suffered from lupus, and was undergoing medical treatment in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. Efforts had been made at EgyptAir, both at a company level and at an employee level, to provide assistance to help defray the medical expenses.
According to Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
reports, Al-Batouti was a promiscuous
Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous by ma ...
man who often made sexual advances toward maids
A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...
and other women at the New York hotel where he stayed.[
]
In popular culture
Season 3
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...
, episode 8 of the Canadian television series Mayday titled "Death and Denial", dramatizes the events and investigation of EgyptAir Flight 990. Gameel Al-Batouti is portrayed by Canadian actor Elias Zarou.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Batouti, Gameel
1940 births
1999 deaths
Egyptian aviators
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Egyptian Air Force personnel
Egyptian people of the Yom Kippur War
20th-century Egyptian military personnel
Commercial aviators
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1999
People from Dakahlia Governorate
Yom Kippur War pilots
1999 suicides