At 9:02 a.m., Wednesday, April 19, 1995, an explosion devastated the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168. Within the hour, news reports and government statements were rife with speculation as to which Middle East terrorist group was responsible. As Arab travelers were being detained for interrogation at U.S. airports, Timothy McVeigh sat in a rural Oklahoma jail, booked on a routine traffic violation.

That erroneous guesswork was a momentary embarrassment here, soon forgotten amid the profound grief for the victims and boundless anger at the all-American perpetrator of that act of domestic terrorism. It was not forgotten in the Arab world, where the groundless assumption was rightly viewed as scapegoating of the worst kind.

A similar rush to judgment is under way with the crash of EgyptAir 990. Based upon the perfunctory translation of a religious invocation spoken by a relief copilot seconds before the Boeing 767 went into its fatal dive, federal transportation officials leaked information that the investigation was turning from equipment failure or weather to suicide/mass murder.

This public lynching of Gameel el-Batouty has sparked understandable outrage in Egypt. And it was only after the leak that other relevant information has emerged. The phrase in question, roughly, “I made my decision now; I put my faith in God’s hands,” is a common colloquialism among Muslims, used as a Jew or Christian might say, “Good God.” Capt. el-Batouty is described as a successful, affluent, accomplished man, a good husband and loving father, who was not a religious fanatic. In the aircraft’s cargo bay were presents he was taking home to his family, hardly to act of someone contemplating suicide.

It may be that Capt. el-Batouty snapped, that in a moment of insanity he took his life and the lives of 216 others. It may be that the aircraft experienced a series of malfunctions that will only be revealed as more pieces of the 767 are recovered. For federal officials to divulge information boosting one theory while so much evidence remains on the ocean floor is indefensible. County sheriffs investigating camp break-ins do a better job of keeping sensitive information confidential until the investigation is complete.

This, of course, is not the first time federal officials and the aircraft industry have been quick to finger terrorists — the cause of the 1996 crash of TWA 800 was a bomb or a missile before it was faulty wiring in a fuel tank.

Now federal investigators are bringing in a new team of experts, including expert linguists, to examine the flight data and voice recorders in minute detail. The question of whether Capt. el-Batouty was the author of a heinous crime or merely one more victim may be answered. Questions about the way these tragedies are investigated will remain.