Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 4, 1994 TAG: 9407040066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and Knight-Ridder Newspapers
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Flight 1016 from Columbia, S.C., tore through telephone poles before slamming into the ground Saturday night with 52 passengers and five crew members aboard. The DC-9 was trying to circle Charlotte-Douglas International Airport after the pilot aborted one attempt to land.
Seventeen people remained in the hospital Sunday, the airline said. Most of the injuries were from the impact; others were from burns and smoke inhalation. Three people were treated and released.
USAir released a partial list of those aboard. No Virginians were on the list.
Robert Thomas had been sleeping on the plane. He woke up when it suddenly tried to gain altitude. The next thing the Phoenix man knew, he was on the ground and his companion was buried under debris.
Thomas, 33, said he had thought to himself, "I don't know why I'm here" just after the crash. "When I got up and looked around, there was nobody."
Thomas, who was treated for minor burns and scrapes, said he did not know whether his friend survived.
It was the airline's fourth crash in five years and the first major crash on any U.S. airline in more than two years.
A USAir flight crashed at LaGuardia Airport in March 1992, killing 27 people. That was the last major crash in the United States.
The plane hit the ground about 6:40 p.m. less than a half-mile from the runway. It bounced, broke into three parts, skidded and slammed into large oak trees, said John Hammerschmidt, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The plane's flaming tail section crashed into a house.
Hammerschmidt said he didn't know why the pilot aborted the landing. Storms had reduced visibility to about a mile, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
"He said something to the effect he was going to make another go around," Hammerschmidt said of the pilot. "Once we interview the flight crew, we hope to have a better idea why he decided to do it."
All crew members survived the crash. The black box and a cockpit voice recorder were recovered.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena flew over the wreckage Sunday, met with USAir executives and visited survivors.
"They are strong-willed," Pena said. "These people are going through a tremendous challenge."
The plane was nearly 21 years old - described by airline officials as middle-aged - and had a veteran crew, said George Tyndall, USAir's customer service manager at the Columbia airport.
Capt. Michael R. Greenlee had flown more than 1,900 hours in DC-9s; First Officer James Hayes had more than 3,100 hours.
USAir Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Seth Schofield defended the airline's record.
"You have to look at each and every incident," Schofield said. "I think it's unfair to characterize and put them all in the same position."
"It is too early to speculate" on factors leading to the crash, Schofield said, but in a noon news conference, he hinted broadly.
"We had reports of thunderstorms in the area," he said.
Airport manager Jerry Orr denounced speculation on the crash's cause but twice volunteered, "There were thunderstorms in the area at the time."
Schofield said the plane passed an exhaustive maintenance review in June.
Keywords:
FATALITY
Memo: lede