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
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