He relied on God...

August 13, 2000 9:10 PM

He relied on God... Okay so now we have the transcript. And now we still haven't the slightest idea. What's with all the thumping?
posted by ZachsMind (11 comments total)

Does anyone else get a 'spoof' feeling from this? I know it's a serious topic, but...surreal or what!

Is it just me??
posted by snowgoon at 4:26 AM on August 14, 2000

Pretty much looks like he ditched it, basically. And the investigators are drip-feeding the verbatim stuff to avoid a diplomatic incident. The spin is "well, wouldn't you think what we're thinking?"
posted by holgate at 4:32 AM on August 14, 2000

I do *want* to make fun of this, because that's how I usually handle tragedy. It's my defense mechanism, but this issue is just.. y'know.. weird. Like the guy just happened to decide to commit hari kari while the lives of hundreds of totally oblivious innocents fell in his hands. What an utterly selfish act.

"I rely on God." He shoulda relied on the braincells God gave'im. The transcript also does nothing for voice inflection. I mean when Anwar was asking El Batouty to 'pull with me' at the end, I'm assuming he's talking about pulling up on the stick to try to flatten out the plane. Was Batouty helping him, or was Anwar fighting with Batouty? Was Anwar saying it cooperatively, or was he like, "Pull with me damn you or I'll squeeze your head!"

Or did Batouty shut the engines because he had no alternative? Were the thumps and clicks early indications of engine failure? Had he not turned off the engines maybe the whole plane woulda blown up? Well.. didn't that happen anyway..

I guess I won't be getting on a plane any time soon.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:01 AM on August 14, 2000

I'm thinking anyone who goes around saying, "What's happening? What's happening, Gamil? What's happening? What is this? What is this? Did you shut the engine(s)? Get away in the engines. Shut the engines," (like he can't figure out what's happening) shouldn't be a captain of a plane.
posted by eyesandfists at 6:01 AM on August 14, 2000

And the part about "Get away in the engines"? If he could get away IN the engines, there'd be no problem. Unfortunately, they've been shut down.

Bet the other guy (Amal Anwar) was thinking, "What a time for a bathroom break."
posted by eyesandfists at 6:03 AM on August 14, 2000

Sounds like a clear suicide to me. It's not all that uncommon for people to take others with them when they go. And airline pilots aren't an exception, either. I believe it's in Cialdini's book, "Influence: The Power of Persuasion" where it's discussed how airplane crashes increase following highly publicized suicides. In other words, they're copycats, essentially.
Interesting but spooky stuff. And being on a plane is still safer than travelling in a car.
posted by beth at 7:29 AM on August 14, 2000

As I understand it, from my Arab friends, "I rely on God" is basically their (cultural, if not linguistic) equivalent, of "oh, sh*t!". And if you do read that transcript again, the first crew pilot (Anwar) says "did you shut the engines?" the only real accusatory statement in that transcript, and then he immediately follows that with "shut the engines". So, I think inflection would make a huge difference in that transcript --it could actually mean he was trying to save the aircraft instead of commiting mass murder-suicide...
posted by costas at 7:37 AM on August 14, 2000

I am hoping it turns out not to be suicide.

If it was suicide then what solution does that suggest? none. Egyptair and the Arab world in general will probably never accept that explanation anyway. I would support the position that suicide is not an important, or relevant, causative factor...that the investigation should focus exclusively on finding a potential mechanical cause. If none is found (i.e. if suicide was, in fact, the cause) then the investigation should be closed as "inconclusive." Focusing on the suicide theory only incites controversy and cultural attacks which may appeal to many people's need to assign blame and certainly makes for attention-grabbing sensationalist headlines but will never lead to useful information or the development of preventive measures.
posted by plaino at 8:13 AM on August 14, 2000

In a continuing attempt to inject some inflection into the transcript, I have solicited a foremost authority on the subject of inflection..

Be vewwy vewwy quiet. We'we cwashing aewopwanes. uh-hah-hah-hah.

posted by ZachsMind at 8:53 AM on August 14, 2000

From the properly inflected transcript we can easily see the true culprit of this tragic crash was in fact the fault of a screwy rabbit. Another mystery solved. Someone please alert EgyptAir.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:00 AM on August 14, 2000

Too bad the plane didn't run out of fuel before it hit, then.
posted by harmful at 9:16 AM on August 14, 2000