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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 2, 1991                   TAG: 9102020433
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

USAIR FLIGHT CRASHES IN LOS ANGELES/ DEATH TOLL RISING AFTER JETLINER HITS

A USAir Boeing 737 jetliner flying from Syracuse, N.Y., to San Francisco by way of Washington; Columbus, Ohio; and Los Angeles, crashed onto a runway Friday night at Los Angeles International Airport, slamming into a twin-engine Sky West commuter flight that was scheduled to take off for Palmdale, Calif.

The Associated Press reported that at least 15 people were killed and 25 injured in the crash, which occurred at 6:08 p.m. Los Angeles time. Reporters in the terminal said a number of survivors apparently were uninjured.

The Federal Aviation Administration said there were 101 people on the two planes and that 29 of them were unaccounted for 2 1/2 hours after the accident.

The wreckage burned with a bright, white flame that could be seen for miles before firefighters extinguished it with mountains of foam.

The FAA regional spokeswoman in Los Angeles, Elly Brekke, told Cable News Network that the two planes collided on the runway.

"The USAir flight was landing. . . . The Sky West was preparing to take off for Palmdale, California. We do not know the cause; we know it involved one airplane taking off and one landing."

Brekke said the planes collided on Runway 24L, one of two parallel runways on the airport's north side. She said the airport remained open, using two runways on the south side of the field.

USAir officials in Los Angeles said Flight 1493 was carrying 83 passengers and a crew of six. It was a Boeing 737-300, a late model of the popular twin-engine jetliner configured to carry 128 passengers.

The commuter plane was identified as Sky West Flight 5569, leaving Los Angeles for Palmdale. That flight was scheduled for a twin-engine Fairchild Metro, which can carry about 19 passengers. News reports from the scene said there were 11 passengers and two crew members aboard.

Roger Boatwright, an employee of a company on 96th Street near the airport, called KNX Radio to say he had seen the USAir plane coming in for a landing without its landing gear down.

John Heffner, a passenger on a Southwest Airlines Flight that landed an hour after the crash, also said the pilot on his plane announced that the crash happened because "the plane's landing gear had been inoperable."

However, eyewitness accounts in such situations have often proved to be inaccurate.

With the Persian Gulf war under way, there also was the question of whether terrorism could have been involved. However, David Shipley, a spokesman for USAir in Washington, said there was no indication terrorism was involved "at this time."

Airport officials initially indicated the Boeing 737 had hit a utility building near the runway. The rear of the jetliner was engulfed in blinding flame and smoke shortly after the crash and appeared to have snapped in two. Firefighters using foam appeared to have put the fire out after about 40 minutes.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB