Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Several of the 24 surviving passengers on the flight from Atlanta to Gulfport, Miss., reported hearing an explosion on the left side of the Brazilian-made Embraer 120 twin-engine turboprop and seeing the left propeller torn apart.
The pilot, who died in the crash, told passengers and air traffic controllers the plane was having engine trouble. Edwin Gannaway, 45, of Dublin, Ga., was praised for bringing the plane down without smashing into nearby homes.
Passengers and witnesses gave Gannaway credit for the lives of the 24 survivors. They said he maneuvered past houses, trees and power lines before the plane crashed and broke apart in a field.
``If you want a headline, you put down that Ed Gannaway was a hero,'' said his friend, Jeff Davis. ``A lot of people lived because he kept his head and got that thing on the ground.''
Late Tuesday in Georgia, John Hammerschmidt of the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators found nothing mechanically wrong with the left engine, although it had been ripped from its mount.
A turboprop uses a jet engine to turn a propeller. Part of the left propeller's blade was missing. Hammerschmidt said the blade could have snapped before or after the crash. A 16-inch piece of the shattered blade was retrieved from the wreckage and will be analyzed.
The flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered. Hammerschmidt said the data recorder indicated the left engine failed at 18,000 feet.
Three fatal commuter airline crashes in 10 months have prompted recommendations by the safety board for tougher standards for regional carriers. Atlantic Southeast is a feeder for Delta Airlines.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB