Civil aviation experts and the FBI are trying to establish the cause of the crash of an EgyptAir jet which plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean early yesterday morning with the loss of 217 lives.
President Clinton telephoned President Mubarak of Egypt to offer condolences and pledged full co-operation in the investigation, which technically is an Egyptian responsibility as the crash happened in international waters. But Mr Clinton said there was no early indication of sabotage of EgyptAir Flight 990.
"We have no evidence of that at this time and I think it's better if people draw no conclusions until we know something," Mr Clinton told reporters before flying to Oslo for a summit on the Middle East peace accords.
Radar data showed that three minutes after the last routine radio contact with the twin-engine Boeing 767, it began a sudden descent from 33,000 feet. Some 36 seconds later, it had reached 19,200 feet, a rate of descent which indicated that the plane was probably out of control.
US coastguard vessels and airforce planes are searching a 36-square-mile area about 60 miles south of Nantucket island, where one body, an oil slick and debris have been found. Weather conditions were good but the wreckage of the plane lies in about 300 feet of water, which will make recovery efforts very difficult. Egypt has asked the US to take over the investigation.
The majority of passengers were American tourists bound for Cairo. Other passengers, who included two babies, were from Egypt, Sudan and Chile.
The plane had earlier flown from Los Angeles to New York, where it picked up most of the passengers.
The plane had been delayed at Los Angeles for maintenance checks and the change of a tyre.
A report from Cairo that the pilot of the jet had sent out a distress call could not be confirmed. US authorities said they had no knowledge of such a call.
The head of EgyptAir, Mr Mohammed Fahim Rayan, was asked at a press conference in Cairo about reports that the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) had warned the airline about a terrorist threat. He said: "We take all precautions and we have plenty of warnings from everybody, including the FAA."
Last month the FAA issued an alert to airline and airport security staffs after several agencies received a warning letter about a sabotage threat. The FAA "information circular" of September 24th said that the letter, sent in August, warned "that a bomb or explosive device with `spiral expansion' would soon be used on a flight departing from either Los Angeles or New York's JFK airport".
The circular said that the informant "identified himself as Luciano Porcari" and that this was the name of a man who hijacked an Iberian Boeing 727 on a flight from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca, Spain on March 14th, 1977 before being overpowered and arrested.
According to the letter, three of the plastic devices, which cannot be discovered by metal detectors, had been smuggled into the US and one still remained unused. The FAA alert expired last Saturday.
The latest air disaster recalls the explosion in July 1996 of a TWA aircraft soon after taking off from Kennedy. Sabotage was suspected, but faulty wiring was finally found to be the cause.