The Fatal Plunge
Investigators quickly discounted the possibility of a massive terrorist bomb. When Pan Am 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, the plane’s transponder, which emits a radio signal, instantly stopped. EgyptAir’s transponder kept working for 40 seconds after radar images showed the plane beginning its dive. It is still possible that the aircraft was shaken by a small bomb or that someone stormed the cockpit or that the pilot somehow became disabled....