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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991                   TAG: 9102080458
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

CONTROLLER DIDN'T KNOW DOOMED JET ON RUNWAY

The air traffic controller handling two planes that collided on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport and killed 34 people thought one of the planes was on a taxiway and that the runway was clear, a federal investigator said Thursday.

The unidentified controller was interviewed for three hours Wednesday by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board who sought to learn what happened in the 10 minutes before the collision between a USAir Boeing 737 and a smaller Skywest commuter plane.

Investigators have described the heavy traffic load the controller was juggling just before the collision Friday night. She was directing four planes.

The controller told the NTSB that she directed the Skywest pilot to enter runway 24 Left and to hold in position for takeoff, investigator James Burnett said. Seconds later she cleared the USAir jet to land on the same runway, he said.

The Boeing 737 smashed the smaller plane as it landed, exploding in flames.

The controller explained that before the crash she looked at the runway and saw a plane she thought was the Skywest commuter blocked from the runway behind a Southwest Airlines 737, Burnett said.

Even after the crash, she was unsure what caused it, he said

"She saw an explosion," Burnett said. "She believed a bomb had exploded."

All 12 people on the Skywest plane were killed. Twenty-two aboard the USAir jet, which carried 89 passengers and crew, died.

Investigators also have said a ground radar display, which might have reminded the controller that the Skywest plane already was on the runway, was broken.

by CNB