Washington - Some of the words originally attributed to a crewman of EgyptAir Flight 990, which bolstered a US theory that the aircraft was deliberately crashed, were not spoken, a government official said yesterday. The first sentence of a widely published quote from the cockpit voice recorder was not uttered on closer review of the tape, the official said.
"I made my decision now. I put my faith in God's hands," was the quote reported by many news organisations.
But the official said there was only a reference to faith in God prior to the autopilot being disconnected and the plane beginning an unusually steep but controlled plunge toward the ocean.
The official described the error as an "innocent mistake" but was unsure how it had happened. The official said it may have been the difference between an early interpretation of what was said in Arabic on the tape and a later interpretation.
Investigations into the crash will not be handled as a criminal act, Egyptian officials who participated in the investigation said yesterday.
"A political agreement was reached with the US side that the file will remain with the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB)," Mr Murad Shawki, head of aviation safety at the civil aviation authority, said. US theories that the crash may have been a suicidal act and media leaks of the cockpit conversations have irritated many Egyptians, who see a rush to judgment.