As a giant airplane rips apart, the tail usually goes first. Radar images showed the plane beginning to break into pieces at 10,000 feet. When Flight 990 hit the Atlantic Ocean, the pieces were shattered into fragments. The problem is why. An FBI team reportedly arrived in Cairo at the weekend to join Egyptian investigators in the delicate task of probing the past of Gamil al-Batouti.
Few clues hint at either.
Last week the suspect's nephew Walid al-Batouti gave Newsweek a glimpse of the prosperous, thoroughly Westernized world of the Batouti family. He wears designer glasses, speaks flawless English and employs a maid. His cell phone rings constantly. He organized family reunions in his two-story villa in the 10th of Ramadan, a prosperous satellite community of Cairo. He owned land on the Nile Delta and wore Italian ties.