NANTUCKET, Mass. — An EgyptAir jetliner plunged suddenly and mysteriously, like a stricken bird, into the Atlantic Ocean south of this resort island early Sunday, killing all 217 people aboard and strewing the ink-black sea, 270 feet deep, with their remains.
The plane, a Boeing 767, was Flight 990, which originated in Los Angeles and added fuel and passengers in New York on its way to Cairo. Its abrupt and rapid fall raised immediate questions about sabotage. The FBI and other intelligence agencies began investigations, but President Clinton and other federal officials said there was no immediate evidence of foul play.
Searchers hunted the Atlantic for the fourth time in three years, seeking bodies and pieces of a plane lost at sea. The first time was after TWA Flight 800 went down off Long Island in July 1996, the second after Swissair Flight 111 crashed off Nova Scotia in September 1998, and the third after John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and her sister were killed off Martha's Vineyard last July.
By nightfall, the searchers aboard 11 aircraft and four cutters had found a body, two partially inflated life rafts and some life jackets and seat cushions. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Richard M. Larrabee said none showed burns, which would have suggested a fire or explosion aboard the plane. The Coast Guard said the sea temperature was 58 degrees, too cold for survival after 12 hours.
The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team of investigators to the crash site. "I want to assure all Americans and all Egyptians, and indeed everyone around the world, that we will devote all the necessary resources to find out what caused this airliner to crash," James E. Hall, the NTSB chairman, declared. "We do not know at this point what caused the crash."
The NTSB said it would work with the FBI, the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration and the State Department, as well as Egyptian officials. "Until we know exactly what happened, just about everybody will be involved in the investigation," said an FBI official in Washington. Agents will examine evidence as it is taken from the ocean to a military facility at Quonset Point, R.I., where the NTSB will reassemble the plane.
Other FBI agents in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles were called in to examine the flight manifest. "We're trying to determine who was or was not on board," the FBI official said. A State Department official said passengers on the plane included citizens of Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Chile and the United States.
