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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 .