EGYPT - Feb. 7 - FBI Interviewing Pilot Seeking Asylum.

FBI agents begin interviewing EgyptAir pilot Hamdi Hanafi Taha, who has sought asylum in London and claimed to have information about 1999's fall's crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. Law enforcement sources say the pilot has made a number of unconfirmed negative remarks about EgyptAir and whether airline officials have been forthcoming about the crash. Egyptian officials question whether the pilot was in a position to know anything about the crash. The airlines head of Operation, Capt. Hassan Misharaf, says Taha was suspended on Feb. 4 - the day he flew a plane to London's Heathrow Airport - for failing to follow procedures. (Taha faces dismissal under Egyptian labour law if he does not report to the state-run airline within 8 days of his suspension. FBI officials are trying to assess Taha's credibility and determine if any of the information provided can be verified. National Transportation Safety Board officials are expected to interview Taha over the next few days. Flight 990, a Boeing 767 en route from New York to Cairo crashed about 50 miles off Nantucket Island on Oct. 31, killing all 217 people aboard. While crash investigators have not issued a finding, officials are working on the theory the plane wasbrought down deliberately by co-pilot Gamil El Batouty. Egyptian officials have dismissed the idea, saying they believe an unexplained problem in the plane's tail was responsible. If Taha has information supporting the American theory, he may fear being ostracised in Egypt. Taha is married to 2 women.) His 1st wife said on Feb. 6 that her husband knew El Batouty but that they were not close. Muntasser El Zayyat, a lawyer and a fundamentalist Muslim, says he knew Taha as one of several pilots who had sued EgyptAir in 1987, demanding it stop providing alcohol on its flights. El Zayyat says they won their case after several months of litigation. He says: "He was a good Muslim, an observant one".