Families File Suits in EgyptAir Crash

The families of five Orange County residents who died in last year’s crash of an EgyptAir jetliner have filed suit against the airline, alleging that pilot negligence and lax maintenance procedures contributed to the plane’s plunge into the Atlantic.

The federal lawsuits charge that airline workers ignored warning signs of possible problems with the Boeing 767 aircraft’s tail assembly, and left a mentally unstable crew member to pilot the plane during crucial minutes before the crash on Oct. 31, 1999.

The complaints, filed Oct. 18, are among dozens of legal actions initiated against the Egyptian airline as the disaster’s one-year anniversary approaches. EgyptAir Flight 990 was traveling from New York to Cairo last October when it crashed off the New England coast. More than 200 people died, including 10 passengers from Orange County who had boarded the plane in Los Angeles, its original departure point.

The lawsuits, assigned to federal court in Santa Ana, were filed by family members of Tobey Seidman, Sheila Jaffee, Judith Bowman and Effat and Virginia Mansour. They are seeking unspecified compensatory damages. EgyptAir officials were not available for comment.

The cause of the crash remains a mystery. Egyptian and U.S. officials have offered differing scenarios of what could have caused the plane’s sudden descent from 33,000 feet.

One original theory pushed by U.S. investigators was that co-pilot Gamil Batouty deliberately plunged the jetliner into the Atlantic as part of a murder-suicide mission. Egyptian officials, rejecting the U.S. scenario, have said the accident could have been caused by malfunctions in the aircraft’s elevator-control system, precipitating the plane’s steep dive.

The Orange County families’ attorneys point to possible mechanical trouble, as well as pilot negligence in failing to correct the plane’s plunge.

Attorney Arthur Wolk said work crews in Los Angeles failed to do routine maintenance checks, even though there were signs of potential problems with the plane’s elevators. The elevators, located on the plane’s tail assembly, control the up or down angles of the nose. Wolk said he based his conclusions on the government’s official accident reports.

The workers “had not taken all necessary measures to prevent the accident,” Wolk said. “That’s why they have mechanics and preflight checks.”

Wolk said when the plane went into its nose dive, only the co-pilot, Batouty, who showed signs of mental instability, was in the cockpit, a violation of federal aviation regulations.

Five other pilots also were on the plane and none replaced the flight’s captain when he left the cockpit.

“You don’t leave the cockpit to one person, especially with a person like this guy,” Wolk said.

EgyptAir officials have strongly rejected theories that Batouty acted intentionally.