21 Killed as Commuter Plane Crashes, Burns

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A US Airways Express commuter aircraft departing Charlotte-Douglas International Airport with 19 passengers and a crew of two plunged into a maintenance hangar Wednesday, killing all aboard in a violent fireball.

Seconds before the crash, witnesses said, the twin engines of the Beech 1900D turboprop plane made sputtering noises as it climbed several hundred feet above a runway, then flipped and plummeted into the edge of a US Airways hangar.

“You could tell it was in trouble because it was going straight up, 90 degrees, and then it made a U-turn and came straight down,” said Tommy Stacey, 25, an electrician’s apprentice who watched as the plane hit the ground 500 feet away.

Federal safety officials said air traffic controllers received a distress call from the plane’s pilot, Capt. Katie Leslie, moments before the plane went into its dive -- a strong indication of mechanical failure. “An emergency was declared,” said National Transportation Safety Board investigator John Goglia, who flew to the scene from Washington to head a team of federal disaster analysts. “That would seem to rule out a terrorist attack.”

FBI officials said there were no signs of a criminal act. Operated by Mesa Airlines for US Airways, Flight 5481 started out Wednesday morning from Lynchburg, Ky., picking up 19 passengers in Charlotte for an 8:45 a.m. flight to Greer, S.C. All of the passengers were from other cities and one was listed as an 11-year-old, Goglia said.

After scanning the crash site with an NTSB team, Goglia said the plane’s flight data recorder had been recovered in the wreckage and would be flown to Washington on Wednesday night for analysis. Investigators used a forklift to sift through flame-blackened metal, and there were reports at nightfall that they had also identified the plane’s cockpit voice recorder.

Federal aviation and safety officials said that the Beech aircraft, built by the Raytheon Aircraft Co. in 1996, had a minor history of malfunctions, but that all had been corrected. Among the most recent of 10 incidents, according to Federal Aviation Administration documents, were a right engine shutdown on a 2000 flight because of lost oil pressure and a 2002 landing gear failure.

FAA records catalog nearly two dozen “airworthiness directives” warning of various problems on the 700 turboprops built by Raytheon since 1982. NTSB officials issued a safety alert in July 1997 after three incidents in which flaps detached from 1900D turboprops, causing a sudden loss of control and an “uncommanded roll” of the planes. One involved a June 1996 flight of a Mesa Airlines turboprop that “reached a bank angle of 40 degrees before [the pilot] was able to regain control.”

Interviews with eyewitnesses were “conflicting,” Goglia said, but both of the plane’s propellers were apparently operating Wednesday. But another federal official said the aircraft’s sudden dive on takeoff would likely lead investigators to look hard at the possibility of engine failure.

Goglia and a Raytheon spokesman cautioned that it was too early to draw any clear conclusions from the histories of the crashed aircraft or other 1900D turboprops. “At this point, there’s no indication of this airplane or any others having systemic or long-term problems,” Goglia said.

Tim Travis, a Raytheon spokesman, added that “everyone likes to speculate, but until the investigation is complete, we’ll have to wait and see.” Travis noted that Raytheon had issued its own safety communique about the wing flap incidents to Beech 1900D operators in May 1997. The firm also sent four investigators to Charlotte on Wednesday to aid the federal analysts, he added.

FAA officials said that, despite the variations between small commuter aircraft and large passenger planes, federal maintenance requirements and inspection schedules are equally rigorous. Those standards were equalized in 1997 after a series of crashes of the smaller planes, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. Before that, she said, commuter planes with 30 or fewer seats had different crew training and other safety requirements.

“When you’re talking about the hauling of people, there’s no cutting of corners,” FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said. Wednesday’s crash occurred moments after Flight 5481 roared down a 10,000-foot-long runway on a scheduled half-hour run to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, 80 miles away. The weather at the airport was clear with a slight wind, said Rodney Hinson, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

As he worked on cables outside a company trailer just before 9 a.m., Stacey heard odd sputtering noises from an airplane overhead. He looked up to see Flight 5481 pull straight up in the air, then dive. The ground shook and a vortex of flame leapt from the hangar, Stacey said. Seconds later, plumes of smoke billowed over the airport, visible from the center of Charlotte, officials said. The plane’s left wing had sheared an exterior wall as it fell, Goglia said.

“It was going straight up and then it fell to the left, like the wind was pushing it,” Stacey said. Airport firefighters brought the blaze under control within minutes. What remained of the plane was “a metal spine and a lot of wreckage,” Stacey said.

No one on the ground was seriously injured, authorities said.

Most of the remains were confined to the area near the hangar. Mesa Airlines officials and two chaplains met in Greenville with at least 15 people waiting for Flight 5481.

Officials did not return several calls to Mesa Airlines headquarters in Phoenix. Mesa operates in Eastern and Midwestern states as US Airways Express. Company President Jonathan Ornstein issued a statement saying the firm was “deeply concerned about this event.”

A passenger and crew list released by US Airways on Wednesday night indicated that at least six passengers were from Florida, three from North Carolina and most of the rest from the North. Two were from India.

It was the first fatal accident involving a passenger or cargo airliner in the United States since an American Airlines jetliner crashed in Queens, N.Y., on Nov. 12, 2001, killing 265.

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Lamb reported from Charlotte and Braun from Washington. Times researcher John Beckham contributed to this report.

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About the plane

FAA records show five in-flight incidents defined as having the potential to affect safety:

* Sept. 20, 2002: Instruments indicate a problem with a cargo door but the plane lands safely in New Orleans.

* May 16, 2002: Lands safely in Pittsburgh after instruments warn of a problem with the nose gear. Investigation finds that hydraulic power pack failed.

* Nov. 28, 2000: Lands safely at Omaha after the right engine loses oil pressure and the crew shuts down the engine. Engine replaced.

* Nov. 21, 1999: Returns to Kansas City, Mo., airport shortly after takeoff after indicator warns of unsafe gear, which later proves to be normal.

* May 6, 1997: Returns to Kansas City shortly after takeoff when a bleed-air fail light illuminates. An examination finds a hole in tubing and a missing O-ring in the bleed line. Both of those problems were fixed.

Sources:

Mesa Air: www.mesa-air.com/index.html

Raytheon: www.raytheonaircraft.com

Federal Aviation Administration: www.faa.gov

Sources: Mesa Air: www.mesa-air.com/index.html; Raytheon: www.raytheonaircraft.com; Federal Aviation Administration: www.faa.gov