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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995                   TAG: 9504050085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Newspapers
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CREW, CONTROLLER ERRORS BLAMED FOR N.C. CRASH

The picture painted by the National Transportation Safety Board was one of poor performance at many levels that resulted in disaster. The pilots did not recognize the danger they were heading into, air traffic controllers did not see the worsening weather on their own radars, and those who did failed to relay that information to the plane.

USAir did not make sure all its pilots went through all phases of the airline's sophisticated wind-shear training program, a program that relies on computer-driven simulators. Flight 1016's two pilots went through a simulation that presented far different wind-shear ``cues'' than those present in Charlotte.

The airline also did not take sufficient steps to ensure that its pilots adhered to protocol in the cockpit by doing such things as going through checklists, according to the safety board.

But even with all that, the NTSB said the crash probably would have been avoided had any one of the four major causes not been present.

``That's a distinct possibility,'' NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said.

But the DC-9 did crash July 2, and NTSB's ruling Tuesday stands as the government's official explanation. While many of the factors were widely known, the board's heavy focus on the crew came as a surprise and represents a blow to the airline, which is recovering from five crashes in five years.

``Our quarrel with the findings is simply with that part that suggests our pilots behaved incorrectly,'' USAir spokesman Paul Turk said.

``The bad news for us is they came down very hard on the flight crew,'' said Bob Tully, a USAir pilot and the chief investigator of the 1016 crash for the Air Line Pilots Association. ``We think it's unfair because they did not give sufficient weight to the errors made on the ground [by the controllers and weather officials].''

USAir and the Air Line Pilots Association have insisted that the DC-9 with 57 aboard was brought down by a freak of nature, a wind shear so strong that the jet was overcome. A NASA researcher testified in September that it was the most powerful ever documented.

The lead NTSB investigator, Greg Feith, said, however, that the pilots had enough information to know they were heading for trouble.

``They had information available to them. Their radar was actually painting [the storm], and they were talking about it,'' he said. ``To say they were out of the loop is not entirely correct. They may have misinterpreted the data they had.''

The airline and the pilots' union also contend that Capt. Michael Greenlee and First Officer James Hayes had no warning because their on-board wind-shear warning system failed to trigger and because controllers did not relay critical information about the weather.

Greenlee and Hayes both testified at the same hearing that they were not aware of the wind shear until it was too late.