By Mariam Sami
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, October 31, 1999; 9:39 a.m. EDT

CAIRO, Egypt –– EgyptAir may have one of the best safety records in the aviation business, but the state-owned company has no shortage of critics.

In a country riding a tide of privatization, newspapers and commentators have clamored for selling the 67-year old company, one of the oldest in the Middle East.

Operating in a region where terrorism is always a threat, EgyptAir has emerged unscathed. It has never fallen victim to Islamic militants who have been waging a bloody insurrection since 1992 to set up a theocratic state in Egypt.

EgyptAir chairman Mohammed Fahim Rayan said Sunday's crash of Flight MS990, which was carrying 199 passengers and 15 crew, is the airline's first fatal crash.

In August, Egypt said it was increasing security at airports and on EgyptAir flights. The measures were not in response to any specific terrorist threat, officials said, but were to account for increased summer traffic.

"There is nothing that indicates that this was a terrorist act. ... Contact with the plane was cut suddenly which indicates that something happened suddenly," Civil Aviation Minister Ibrahim el-Dimeiri told a news conference.

Armed security guards routinely fly on EgyptAir flights. Passengers, after going through the normal security check at the airport, are again subjected to baggage search just before they board the aircraft.

Sunday's crash comes after the Oct. 19 hijack of an EgyptAir flight between Istanbul and Cairo. It was commandeered by a man identified as Khalaf Fadlallah, who apparently poked a pen at a flight crew member's neck and forced the plane to fly to Germany.

The hijacking ended peacefully in Hamburg where the hijacker was overpowered on the tarmac. None of the 46 passengers on board was harmed.

Critics said the hijack was evidence of sloppy security and blamed the company for not reinforcing the weak cockpit door, which Fadlallah kicked open.

Only two other incidents involving EgyptAir have been reported in recent memory. In 1996, a plane skidded onto a road and hit a taxi while landing in Istanbul. Nineteen people on board the plane were injured. EgyptAir blamed Turkish airport authorities for asking the plane to land on a short, sloping runway.

Last year, EgyptAir mechanics found a 16-ounce hammer left in the rudder of a new Boeing 777. The hammer caused small fractures in the rudder while bouncing around during flight. Boeing apologized for the incident.

Rayan, the EgyptAir chairman, has acknowledged mistakes in the way the company has been operated, but has ruled out privatization of the airline.

A former army general who runs the company with an iron fist, Rayan has promised better service, saying the $441-million company is expanding.

With the addition of routes to four African countries last year, EgyptAir now operates a fleet of 38 planes – marked by white fuselage and blue tails with the red face of the pharaonic falcon god, Horus – to some 85 airports abroad and 10 in Egypt.

In 1998, the carrier suffered $60 million in losses when tourists stayed away from Egypt after Muslim extremists killed 58 foreigners in November 1997 at a tourist site in the southern town of Luxor.