Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991 TAG: 9102030203
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
They covered bodies from a blackened, twisted jetliner that struck a smaller plane and burst into flames Friday night at Los Angeles International Airport.
Most of 101 people on the aircraft survived. At least 13 didn't.
A sheet was draped Saturday from the jetliner's cockpit window. Three covered bodies were on stretchers alongside a blue coroner's van. Several other sheets were spread over the wreckage.
Reporters rode a bus that followed USAir Flight 1493's skid marks down the runway to the crash site. Investigators poked at debris while fuel was pumped out of the jetliner, which rested alongside an abandoned fire station.
The Boeing 737 was charred, except for the tail and nose sections. The landing gear was intact.
Underneath were the burned and mangled steel remains of the Skywest commuter plane. A deflated emergency chute dangled from an escape way on the jet.
Skid marks indicated the jet was westbound on Runway 24L right after it landed, then struck the smaller aircraft preparing for takeoff.
"The larger aircraft and the smaller aircraft joined together, slid for some distance and collided with the fire station," said city Fire Chief John Badgett.
About 50 yards from the wreckage was the commuter plane's nearly intact, but burned, landing gear.
At one point, the skid marks veered to the left and off the runway, showing how the jet crossed a dirt and gravel median and a service road before slamming into an old fire house.
The jet's fuselage was snapped in half, at a point directly over the wing area. The charred interior was visible, but little was recognizable.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB