Grapevine

By PAUL GRAY/

ANOTHER REASON NOT TO FLY AEROFLOT. Several days after an Aeroflot jet inaugurated the first direct flights from Moscow to Seoul, four members of the elite crew checked into a local hospital complaining of stomach pains; one later died of suspected alcohol poisoning. Reports say the four became ill after drinking a liter of methyl alcohol they bought in a drugstore. Presumably they did not know about soju, the local firewater, which tastes just as potent but is somewhat less dangerous.

With reporting by DAVID ELLIS