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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 2, 1994                   TAG: 9411020071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE: ROSELAWN, IND.                                LENGTH: Medium

PLANE MIGHT HAVE ICED

Investigators and search teams ranged over a mile-wide stretch of wreckage, its sprawl a clue that the French-built turbo-prop plane may have broken up in mid-air.

Officials still were considering severe wind shear and other causes, but the driving rain and freezing temperatures aloft Monday raised the possibility of icing of the wings or fuselage.

When temperatures approach freezing and humidity is high, ice can build up on an aircraft in thicknesses virtually undetectable to the naked eye. The ice can distort a wing's shape, reducing its ability to lift, and the added weight can overburden the plane.

National Transportation Safety Board analysts also were intrigued by the spread of the wreckage - which hints at mid-air disintegration - and reports of severe windstorms at about 9,000 feet, where the plane began its fatal plummet.

One witness said he saw the almost-new twin-engine propjet plunge toward the ground with a wing sheared off. NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said he had no comment on that report.

Barry Schiff, a veteran airline pilot who has assisted in major crash investigations, said a combination of severe turbulence and the strains put on the plane by efforts to control it could have caused a breakup that scattered the plane over such a wide radius.

Lopatkiewicz said both of the plane's ``black boxes'' had been recovered and sent to Washington for analysis. One, the cockpit voice recorder, provides a read-out of pilot conversations and other sounds in the half-hour before the crash. The flight data recorder provides information on as many as 40 technical aspects of the flight such as air speed, altitude and course.

Tuesday, identification of bodies and wreckage moved slowly as teams took pains to avoid spilled jet fuel fumes and other contaminants. The largest piece of plane left was a 6-to-8-foot section of the tail.

Crews built a gravel road across a boggy soybean field to reach the bodies and wreckage. Investigators could approach the cordoned-off site only in blue and white hazard suits, wearing disposable masks and gloves. They were decontaminated in mobile antiseptic chambers before leaving to avoid infection by blood-borne diseases - a practice pioneered after the September crash of a Boeing 737 near Pittsburgh.

The French- and Italian-built Super ATR was registered in March and had experienced no problems through September except a broken floor light, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

Bob Hilton, who was working under the hood of his truck at the time of the crash, said the plane sounded like the pilot ``had it full throttle, like a stunt pilot, like he was going to try to bring it up.''

NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said the weather alone wouldn't explain the crash. ``Airplanes operate every day in this type of weather,'' he told ABC. ``We'll have to look to see whether there were any unusual weather occurrences that might cause the result.''

Keywords:
FATALITY