Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 4, 1991 TAG: 9102040297
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
As the last of the 33 victims of the airport runway crash were pulled from the wreckage Sunday, investigators discovered more problems with the air control system at the busy airport. Another 68 people survived the Friday night crash.
The air traffic controller who gave the USAir Boeing 737 permission to land while the the Skywest Metroliner was on the same runway was talking to another controller moments before the accident, Jim Burnett of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday night at a news conference.
He also said a tape from the "black box" used to record the cockpit conversations aboard the USAir jetliner was examined Sunday, but it might be of limited use.
"We have quality problems - I gather of a serious nature - with the cockpit voice recorder due to some mechanical malfunction and perhaps tape condition," he said.
That could make it difficult to recreate the crew member's conversations during the crucial moments before the jetliner landed Friday.
Its landing crushed the smaller Skywest plane and the two went into a fiery skid before smashing into an unused building near the runway.
A federal investigator visiting the control tower found four light poles illuminating a ramp area blocked the view of the crash site, Burnett said.
"One of those structures was dead in the middle," he said.
Investigators today planned to test visibility from the tower and the air by placing another small plane on the runway and videotaping it under day and night conditions. A helicopter will retrace the approach of the USAir jetliner.
The control tower was equipped with a ground-scanning radar designed to check for aircraft on runways, but it was inoperative for at least 18 hours before the crash, Burnett said.
In 1989 the Federal Aviation Administration recommended that the tower supervisor used the surface detection equipment at night "and at any time in which any part of the runway was not visible," Burnett said. "That was to help avoid runway incursions" of the sort that resulted in the tragedy.
Identification of some victims could take days or even weeks, officials said.
"It's been a very trying time for the families," Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Bob Dambacher said. "They feel helpless."
On Saturday, the NTSB released highlights of about five minutes of conversation between the control tower and pilots just before the crash.
On the tape, tower traffic showed USAir Flight 1493 twice asked the controller for permission to land and received no response.
About two minutes before the crash, a controller directed commuter Skywest Flight 5569 with 12 people on board to enter Runway 24-Left for takeoff, and the tape had the same controller giving the USAir pilot permission to land on 24-Left.
Moments later, controllers acknowledged a crash and fire had occurred.
Burnett, who gave an oral account of the tapes, would not say whether the controller had erred.
The controller's name wasn't released, and her supervisor submitted to urine drug tests, Burnett said. Blood tests for alcohol and other drugs also were requested of four other controllers on duty during the crash. Such tests are routine.
Also standard procedure was reassignment of the controller and supervisor to administrative duty until the NTSB investigation is completed.
Burnett said that moments before the crash, the controller was unable to contact another plane crossing the same runway ahead of the waiting Skywest plane and had asked another controller to try.
USAir officials said 21 people died on its aircraft, but only released the name of a pilot, Capt. Colin Shaw, 48, of Washington. All 12 people aboard the Skywest plane were killed.
Despite raging flames and choking smoke that filled the jet's interior, 68 people survived the USAir crash. Some were able to climb over seats to reach exits and make their way along one wing before jumping to the ground.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB