Tensions were also high at the Novotel Hotel on the evening of July 9 as Nationair employees waited for the plane to return from Jedda. For some crew members, lack of sleep caused by the tight schedules and lengthy delays made tempers flare.

Philippe and a male flight attendant got into a shouting match. (Philippe had several other arguments with crew members that week, witnesses said. Crew members said they were angry with him because he failed to plan ahead for repairs to the aircraft.)

As the evening wore on, Philippe and Calombaris announced they were going to the airport to meet the plane and change the tires.

The plane arrived in Accra on July 10 at 1:24 a.m., Nationair records show.

When the mechanics went to the airport, however, nobody was available to open the storage depot where Nationair kept its tires, Barayan said.

A Nationair employee eventually found an airport worker with a key. But he had to bribe the worker by giving him a broken piece of cheap jewelry before he would open the shed, a source said.

It takes only about 45 minutes to change a tire but the flight was already about three hours late. Three witnesses say that Aldo Tettamanti, a Nationair ground-operations official, told the crew to fly back to Jedda immediately or it would lose its contract. Tettamanti died in the crash.

One flight crew member said that when he boarded the DC-8 around 4 a.m. the tires still had not been changed.

Instead, he said, he saw three Nationair pilots and the two mechanics, Philippe and Calombaris, standing around on the tarmac discussing the condition of the tires.

This witness, who has not been interviewed by crash investigators, said he heard Philippe tell other mechanics and pilots they would change the tires in Jedda.

What was the condition of the tires at this point?

One Nationair employee who saw the tires in Accra on July 10 told The Gazette that "on some parts there were no treads at all. They were completely bald."

Hadji i.d. card in the desert as shown in the Gazette article.

Another denied the tires had bald spots. Mechanic Calombaris maintained that they were "still serviceable."

Four pilots were used on the Jedda flights. One of the three survivors, Ben Léveillé, denied he took part in the tarmac meeting.

Before hanging up, he said "As far as what you're trying to dig for, I personally did not have an involvement in it."

The second pilot, Pierre Simard, hung up when asked about the tires.