The analysis of 16 plasma vortex occurrences in the magnetotail plasma sheet of Hones et al. (1983) is extended. We used two- and three-dimensional plasma measurements and three-dimensional magnetic field measurements to study phase relations, energy propagation, and polarization properties. The results point toward an interpretation as a slow strongly damped MHD eigenmode which is generated by tailward traveling perturbations at the low-latitude interface between plasma sheet and magnetosheath.