DATE=11/13/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EGYPTAIR CRASH/PILOTS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256132
BYLINE=RICHARD ENGEL
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Officials in Egypt Saturday warned against 
speculating about what might have caused EgyptAir 
Flight 990 to crash into the Atlantic Ocean off the 
coast of Massachusetts, killing 217 people. Richard 
Engel reports from Cairo that investigators are trying 
to determine what the pilots were doing during the 
final moments before the crash two weeks ago.

TEXT:  EgyptAir Chairman Mohammed Rayan told reporters 
the pilots of EgyptAir Flight 990, which crashed 40 
minutes after taking off from New York's John F. 
Kennedy Airport, were mentally stable and had no 
motive to crash the plane deliberately.

Speculation about the pilots arose after one of the 
plane's flight data recorders indicated the Boeing 
767's autopilot had been disengaged and that the 
engines had been shut down.

Some U-S media speculated that one of the pilots may 
have crashed the plane as a way to commit suicide, or 
had been forced to do so by someone in the cockpit.

But Mr. Rayan said the flight's command pilot, Ahmed 
al Habashi, was a pious Muslim who had recently been 
on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and that Islam frowns 
on suicide.  Captain Habashi was also close to 
retirement.

He also said the plane's co-pilot, Adel Anwar, was 
only days away from departing on a honeymoon with his 
new bride.

EgyptAir's director of operations, Hassan Musharafa, 
said officials from the U-S National Transportation 
Safety Board, or N-T-S-B, and the Federal Aviation 
Administration, or F-A-A, are in Egypt reviewing 
airline records.

            /// MUSHARAFA ACT ///

      The medical checks are there.  The records are 
      there.  The records are being checked by the N-
      T-S-B, the F-A-A and our teams.  The records are 
      available. And nobody had any mental history.

            /// END ACT ///

The chairman of EgyptAir showed reporters the two 
pilot's medical records, which he said indicated they 
were of sound body and mind at the time of the flight.

Investigators from the U-S Federal Bureau of 
Investigation are also in Cairo looking for clues to 
help them find out what went tragically wrong with 
EgyptAir Flight 990. (Signed)

NEB/RHE/ALW/JP




13-Nov-1999 13:46 PM EDT (13-Nov-1999 1846 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.