USAir Flight 1493 is a scheduled passenger flight from Syracuse Hancock International Airport, New York, to San Francisco International Airport, via Washington, D.C.; Columbus, Ohio; and Los Angeles. On the night of February 1, 1991, Boeing 737-300 served a flight accidentally collided with SkyWest Flight 5569 , a Metroliner turboprop plane, when landing in Los Angeles.
This accident is also known as the LAX runway collision . Although air traffic is not crowded at Los Angeles airport, since Flight 1493 is in the final approach, local controllers are plagued by a series of abnormalities, including aircraft that inadvertently turn off the frequency of towers and misplaced flight progress paths. SkyWest flight was told to take a taxi to takeoff position while the USAir plane landed on the same runway.
After landing, the 737 collided with a twin-engine turboprop, continuing down the runway with a turboprop that crashed beneath it, got off the ground, and caught fire. All 12 people on smaller aircraft were killed, as well as a total of 23 out of 89 passengers on Boeing. Rescue workers were at the scene of the fire within minutes and began the evacuation of the aircraft. Due to a terrible fire, three of the sixth of the 737 exits can not be used. There is no usable front exit, which causes the front passenger to try to use an exit door that is too high. However, only one of the passable exits can be used, which causes the backlog to take shape. Most of those who died on board 737 died from suffocation from post-collision fire.
The National Transportation Safety Council found that the probable cause of accidents was the procedure used in the LAX control tower, which provided inadequate redundancy, which caused a loss of situational awareness by local controllers. The accident immediately led to the NTSB recommendation to use different runways for takeoff and landing in LAX.
Video USAir Flight 1493
Breakdown details
Aircraft and crew
USAir Flight 1493 is a scheduled service from Syracuse, making stops in Washington, D.C., Columbus, Ohio, and Los Angeles (LAX), before proceeding to San Francisco. On February 1, 1991, Flight 1493 was operated by Boeing 737-300 (registration N388US ); After a crew change in Washington, it was under the command of Captain Colin Shaw, 48, a highly experienced pilot with about 16,300 hours of total flying, and First Officer David Kelly, 32, who has about 4,300 hours of total flying. Flying to LAX, the plane has 89 passengers (83 passengers, 4 flight attendants, and 2 pilots).
On February 1, 1991, SkyWest Airlines Flight 5569 operated using twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner (registration N683AV ). The flight is scheduled to leave LAX on the last schedule of multi-city schedules, and head for Palmdale, California with 10 passengers and 2 pilots in it. Both Flight 5569 pilots have significant experience; Capt. Andrew Lucas, 32, has about 8,800 flying hours, and First Officer Frank Prentice, 45, has about 8,000 flight hours.
Airport
LAX consists of four parallel runways, with two runways and an associated taxiway north of the terminal called North Complex . The aircraft landing on the runway outside - 24R - will cross the base of the ship - 24L - to reach the terminal.
Flights
Skywest 5569 vacated by Air Traffic Controller at LAX tower ('local controller') to taxi to Runway 24L, moving from gate 32 to runway via taxiways Kilo, 48, Tango and 45. The aircraft was briefly invisible from the tower on taxiway 48 between Kilo and Tango in an area known as no man's land .
Immediately before SkyWest 5569 reached the 24L runway, Wings West plane landed on 24R and waited permission to cross 24L and taxi to the terminal. The local controller attempted to cross the Wings West plane but the crew had changed the frequency and did not answer, diverting the local controller as he tried to rebuild the communication. Shortly after 6 pm local time, when USA 1493 took its final approach to LAX, the Metroliner was cleared by local controllers to enter the take-off position at 24L at 45 taxiway intersections, approximately 2,200 feet (670 m) from the runway threshold. After four attempts by local controllers, Wings West aircraft finally responded to the tower and apologized for the switching frequency. The local controller then clears the USAir flight to land on 24L, although the SkyWest Metroliner still holds the takeoff position on the runway.
With this activity continuing, another Wings West plane, a Metroliner similar to SkyWest 5569, called the towers reporting that they were ready to take off. The same local controller asked about this plane about their position, and they told him that they were holding on to a 24L short taxiway. The flight progress strip for this flight has not been granted to the local controller by the permission shipping controller (another redirection), and the local controller mistakenly thinks this Metroliner is SkyWest 5569 and thus the clear runway of the aircraft. The first officer of the USAir flight remembered hearing this conversation, but could not remember who had been cleansed to hold the ground.
The American aircraft landed near the runway threshold. Just as the nose is lowered, the first officer sees the SkyWest 5569 on the runway and implements the maximum braking, but it is too late. The United States plane crashed into the Metroliner, crushing it beneath the plane. The 737 rolled off the runway, then veered off the left side and stopped on the far side of the taxiway near a closed fire station building, which eventually caught fire. The massive ruins of the Metroliner - including the tail, wings, and the right machine - are found on runways and between runways and abandoned fire stations.
The accident was witnessed from a plane carrying Vancouver Canucks, who arrived for an NHL hockey game against the Los Angeles Kings. The captain of the chartered plane had just landed, lit the engine to get away from the fireball. The team is not sure if USAir 737 will stop before colliding with their plane. The Canucks were shaken by experience and lost to the Kings with a score of 9-1, their worst defeat of the 1990-91 season.
Maps USAir Flight 1493
Fatalities and injuries
35 people were killed including all 12 people (10 passengers and two crew members) at SkyWest 5569, and 23 from 89 ships in USA 1493 (21 passengers, Captain Shaw, and one flight attendant). Two United States casualties were passengers who survived the accident but died of burns 3 and 31 days after the accident.
Captain Shaw was killed when the plane's nose hit an abandoned fire station, destroying the cockpit where it sits. Of the remaining passengers and crew members of the 1493 USAir, 2 crew members and 10 passengers suffered serious injuries, 2 crew members and 15 passengers suffered minor injuries, and 37 passengers received no injuries. Billionaire businessman David H. Koch was among the survivors.
The majority of casualties in the USA 1493 occurred to those seated at the front of the plane, where the post-crash fire originated from a front cargo load, fed by a combination of fuel from the wrecked SkyWest 5569 and oxygen gas from damaged 737. crew oxygen system. Everyone sitting in row 6 or forwards is either killed or severely injured, while everyone behind line 17 fled, some with minor injuries. Only two passengers and one crew member managed to escape from the front door of service (R1), while the main cabin door (L1) could not operate due to damage. Only two passengers using left-wing doors remained before the fire became too strong outside the plane. The majority of survivors out through the right wing exit, with the rest of the cabin survivors escaping through the back door of service (R2). The rear passenger door (L2) was opened briefly during the accident, but was quickly closed due to a spreading fire on the side of the plane. Some problems slow down the evacuation of the upper right-hand door, including passengers sitting on the row of doorways that can not open the door, short fights between two people at the exit, and the back seat of the folded out window seat. , some blocking the way out.
From the location of the corpse, only two casualties in USA 1493 were found in their seats, while authorities were convinced that 17 people had dropped their seat belts and died from inhaling smoke while walking to the exit. According to James Burnett, who heads the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation team, "I can not think of a recent accident where many people got up and down from their seats and did not make it out." The captain was one of the few who died of blunt object trauma, a blow to the head when the bulkhead collapsed as the plane collided with the fire department. The first officers were rescued through the cockpit windows by some of the first firefighters to arrive at the crash site.
Among those killed at SkyWest 5569 were Palmdale Skyview station manager, Michael Fuller, and FAA air traffic controller who worked in Palmdale, Scott Gilliam.
Aftermath
First Officer David Kelly, who flew USAir 1493 during a foot crash, reported that he had not seen SkyWest 5569 until he lowered his nose to the runway after landing. Kelly also said that he applied the brakes, but did not have enough time for dodge action. The statements made by the surviving passengers of the accident are consistent with this testimony.
The local controller who cleans both aircraft to use the same runway, Robin Lee Wascher, testified before NTSB and received the accusation for causing the accident. He said initially he thought the landing of the USAir plane had been hit by a bomb, then "realized something was wrong... I went to the supervisor and I said, 'I think this (SkyWest plane) is what the USAir hit.'" He testified that the lights the roof in his line of sight causes glare in the tower, making it difficult to see the small plane at the junction where the SkyWest plane is positioned. Just before the accident, he confused Skywest planes with another commuter plane that was on the taxiway near the end of the runway. That made it harder, ground radar in LAX did not work on the day of the crash.
The NTSB investigation of the accident revealed that the crew of the USAir landing cockpit crew could not see the commuter plane, which blended with the other airport lights. The NTSB cites LAX procedures that place a lot of responsibility for runways on local controllers, which directly leads to a loss of situational awareness by local controllers. NTSB also notes that during previous performance reviews, a supervisor has noted four deficiencies in local controllers that ultimately work on crash aircraft. This shortage was not addressed before the accident, and two shortcomings were seen in the order of accidents - the loss of situational awareness and misidentification of the aircraft.
NTSB's investigation of the accident revealed a failed system at the air and road traffic control facilities at LAX: ground radar systems worked intermittently, and did not work at the time of the incident; blind spot, from the control tower, when viewing the SkyWest 5569 spot is waiting on the runway; the system for the ground controller in the tower to pass the flight progress strip to the local controller does not support the workload of the local controller; Aircraft on the runway are not required to turn on all of their external lights until they roll over to take off. All of these issues were fixed in LAX after this incident.
At the time of the accident, the air traffic controllers at LAX used all four runways (24L and 24R Complex North runways, 25L and 25R Southern Complex runways) for takeoff mix and landing. One NTSB recommendation is that the runway is separated solely by landing or departure which occurs on the respective grounds. This recommendation was carried out, but not until after another incident, when on August 19, 2004, a Boeing 747 landed at 24L passing just 200 feet (61 m) above the 737 holding on the same runway. LAX now uses an outboard runway (24R and 25L) for landing and deep launching runs (24L and 25R) for takeoff. In addition, a new control tower was built at LAX, at a more central location and with a better vantage point, allowing visibility of all critical runways and taxiways at the airport.
Prior to this accident, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ruling requiring airlines to improve standards for combustible materials on board, but the USAIR aircraft had been built before the effective date of those requirements and had not been modernized. It is scheduled to be upgraded within the next year. In 2009, all aircraft operating in the United States abided.
Dramatization
The disaster story is featured in the ninth season episode of the Canadian/National Geographic Discovery Channel series Mayday . The episode, titled Cleared for Disaster , explores the events surrounding the accident and its investigations, including interviews with NTSB researchers, first responders, and witnesses.
See also
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
Footnote
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents from the National Transportation Safety Agency.
External links
- Description of the crash in the Aviation Safety Network
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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