Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1994                   TAG: 9404030006
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

RUSSIA BLAMES PILOT'S TEEN SON FOR AIRLINE CRASH

Investigators said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that one of the voices on the Airbus A310's flight-data recorder did not belong in the cockpit. They would not say whose voice it was or what caused the crash March 22.

Newspapers, however, said the second pilot's 15-year-old son accidentally flipped off automatic pilot, affecting the wing flaps and sending the plane into a dive.

The Moscow Times cited unidentified officials at the Transport Ministry and at Aeroflot, the Russian airline. Three other newspapers gave no sources.

The flight-recorder tapes are being analyzed at Airbus headquarters in France. Nobody answered the phone there Saturday. Airline and Transport Ministry officials also were not available for comment.

The investigators' statement, carried by the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies, said the tapes showed nothing wrong with the plane itself.

The plane crashed in a forest 2,000 miles east of Moscow on a flight to Hong Kong. It was owned by Russian International Airlines, the international branch of Aeroflot.

Keywords:
FATALITY