FAA SUSPENDS PILOT, CO-PILOT
TRYING TO DETERMINE WHY PAIR LEFT SCENE OF USAIR CRASH

Federal authorities Friday suspended the licenses of the pilot and first officer of a USAir jetliner that crashed in the East River and sought to determine why the two left the scene of the accident that killed two people.

The Federal Aviation Administration said at its Washington headquarters that because of "circumstances related to the accident (the two crewmen) no longer qualify to exercise their privileges to fly an airliner."An FAA official said a subpeona was issued for the captain, who reportedly had been acting strange before takeoff, and the first officer, "asking them to provide all the pertinent records" in the crash.

Published reports said the first officer was at the controls of the jetliner that crashed Wednesday night at LaGuardia Airport.

The pilot, who should have been at the controls because of the light rain, had only two months' experience in a Boeing 737 before the crew tried to abort takeoff while hurtling down the runway at 140 mph, The New York Times reported. It was the co-pilot's first time in the cockpit of a 737.

Both the pilot and co-pilot disappeared shortly after the crash, which killed two of the 63 people aboard USAir Flight 5050 to Charlotte, N.C. Aviation authorities said they were attempting to inverview both men.

The National Transportation Safety Board, the federal panel empowered to look into such accidents, dispatched a team of investigators to New York. They were scheduled to interview the two men in the afternoon.

Authorities were investigating reports that the co-pilot of the flight told Port Authority police shortly after the crash the pilot had been "mumbling" and "acting irrationally" just before takeoff, the Times reported.

The Daily News in its Friday editions quoted an unidentified law enforcement official as saying the actions of the pilot "may have played a part in the accident."

The News also said there was a subpoena for a bag the pilot took from the plane.