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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994                   TAG: 9402090111
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

PLANE ACCIDENT CAUSES AIRPORT CLOSING, DELAYS

Washington National Airport was closed for more than five hours and numerous flights were diverted or delayed Tuesday after an airplane went off a runway in freezing rain conditions.

No one was injured in the incident at about 4:15 p.m., but airport authorities closed runways while the plane was removed. The MD-80 came to a rest in a grassy area near the Potomac River with its wheels stuck in the mud, officials said.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said it was American Airlines flight 462 from Raleigh-Durham, N.C., carrying 134 passengers and six crew.

It's unclear whether the plane skidded or rolled off the airport's main runway, but the plane appears undamaged, Hamilton said.

Crews used buses to evacuate passengers, and units were trying to tow the aircraft back to the runway. Hamilton said after the stretch of inactivity, the runways were covered in ice and needed to be treated before they were reopened to flights at about 9:20 p.m.

- Associated Press

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB