USAir Flight 1493

USAir Flight 1493 was a scheduled, domestic passenger flight on 1 February 1991 with a Boeing 737- 3B7, the landing at the Los Angeles International Airport with a Swearingen Metro III SA.227AC, short Metroliner called on the planned SkyWest Flight 5569 collided. In the collision and subsequent fire a total of 34 people, including all twelve people died aboard the Metroliner. The main reason for the accident was, in addition to the lack of illumination of the turboprop aircraft, human error by the competent Air Traffic Controller.

Aircraft and crews

Boeing 737 of USAir

The Boeing 737- 3B7 put her first flight on August 23, 1985, almost five and a half years before the accident, back: On September 13, 1985, she was delivered to USAir, where they initially flew under the sign N360AU. Three years later it was renamed N388US. The machine had two CFM56- 3B1 engines.

The captain was 48 years old and had brought a total of 16,300 flying hours, including 4,300 he graduated in the Boeing 737, the first officer was 32 years old and since October 1988 in the service of USAir. He had 4,316 hours of flight experience, including 982 in the Boeing 737 Including the pilots were six crew members, all of them. Unremarkable in their careers, on board 83 of 128 passenger seats in the Boeing were occupied.

SkyWest Airlines Metroliner the

In the plane of SkyWest Airlines, it was a Fairchild Swearingen Metro III SA.227AC, a turboprop aircraft, named Metroliner, which was built in 1987. She was operated under the sign N683AV with two Honeywell TPE331 engines.

As the only crew there were two pilots, the 32 -year-old captain with 8,808 flying hours, which was since May 1985 with SkyWest in the service, and the 45 -year-old first officer, who was with the regional airline since July 1982 and was able to collect 8,000 flight hours. In addition, ten passengers on board, so that the machine was only filled about halfway.

Course

The Boeing 737 on USAir Flight 1493 was against 17:50 clock PST ( UTC -8) on 1 February 1991 on final approach to runway 24L Los Angeles Airport after it was launched at 13:17 Clock from Port Columbus. About 15 minutes before landing began the pilot and the first officer with the visual approach, the " visual approach " on the California airport. 13 kilometers asked the first officer to the competent Air Traffic Controller in Los Angeles Tower, the first landing request. However, the lots in was busy at the time with some other aircraft on their assigned runways 24L and 24R. Flight of SkyWest Airlines 5569, who wanted to stand out, was ordered to wait on the runway 24L. One minute after the last contact attempt asked the USAir crew again permission to land, while the 737- 3B7 only about six kilometers away was her target. However, the air traffic controller employed is still with the other machines. Only 62 seconds before landing they gave USAir 1493 permission to land on 24L. To set the clock 18:06:57 Boeing 737 on the runway and collided five seconds later at a speed of over 150 mph ( 240 km / h) with the Metroliner, the still was located on the slopes. Both broke to the left and before the larger aircraft, the Fairchild Swearingen Metro about 366 meters away from the collision point squeezed between itself and a vacant fire station next to the runway, there was an explosion and both aircraft went up in flames.

One minute after the accident made ​​the first fire service personnel who received the message that a Boeing 737 standing on the runway in flames, of the 400 meter remote station 80. Supported by other units started immediately their rescue and fire fighting actions, with about 40 to 50 people from the smoke-filled cabin of the Boeing 737, the emergency exits were mostly blocked by fire, were evacuated, was also including the co-pilot of the USAir machine. Meanwhile was a firefighter in the right engine propeller aircraft of that, so a collision of two aircraft was suspected. The total of 134 forces deployed were able to fire delete half an hour after the outbreak among others, about 75,700 liters of water.

After the tower had received the message that probably two planes were involved in the disaster, found the pilot that SkyWest Flight 5569 could not be contacted, had disappeared and had to be so involved with in the clash.

Victims and damage

In the collision and resulting fire a total of 34 people were killed and 30 were injured. All twelve people in Metroliner died, eleven of polytrauma, only a passenger came from smoke inhalation and burns killed. On board the Boeing 737 USAir 2 crew members, including the captain, and 20 passengers died. The co-pilot and a further twelve passengers were seriously injured, 17 more easily. A further 37 people but survived the disaster virtually unscathed.

Both aircraft whose total value was estimated at approximately $ 21.6 million (equivalent to approximately 16 million euros ), as well as the fire station were completely destroyed.

The time of the accident 38 years -old air traffic controller in charge of the airport Los Angeles suffered by this shock and got psychological help. Although she was up first, take her profession, she was freed in July 1991 from her job, even after their parents died in a plane crash.

Accident investigation

A few hours after the collision arrived from the U.S. Air Safety Agency National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB short, a seconded team at the Los Angeles airport. This turned at once the question of how two machines could be located simultaneously on a runway. Investigators still stood by under time pressure because the 24R and 24L two tracks had to be fully locked and thus created a chaos at the airport. But before the NTSB could recover the flight recorders of the machines, only several thousand liters of fuel from the Boeing 737 had to be pumped out, resulting in a more hour interruption of the investigations result.

The investigators divided on itself; some investigated the wreck, the others began in the Tower. There, first the call records were confiscated by the evening of the incident, in the rubble were also the two black boxes of Boeing and the flight data recorder of the Metroliner, which had no Voice Recorder discovered.

Through the analysis of the records the events were reconstructed. So it was evident that the air traffic controller who was also responsible for ten aircraft, the start prepare Metroliner at 18:03 clock gave the order, the 45th crossing, which is located on 24L to roll and to wait there until the flight 5006 Wings West Airlines had crossed the railway. This machine was waiting already for release of Crossing. Now the lots in attempted flight 5006 to inform of the release for crossing the runway. However, the Department did not respond. Only after a minute it turned out that the pilots had accidentally changed the frequency and thus could not be reached. But shortly after this aircraft the Wings West Airlines had then crossed the landing and take- off runway, called at 18:06:08 clock another machine the same airline, flight 5072, and requested permission to start. The air traffic controller who had previously USAir Flight 1493 granted permission to land at 18:05:55 clock after repeated requests, was briefly confused because of the similarity of the flight numbers and could not find the control strip of the plane. She had to bring this first before they could enter 5072 further instructions to wait Wings West. A short time later, the Boeing 737- 3B7 U.S. Air crashed in the still waiting on the runway Metroliner. The investigators found that the air traffic controller had the flight 5569 from SkyWest simply forgotten.

However, the investigators left with the question why the USAir crew did not see the waiting Metroliner on the runway and he did not try to dodge, because the SkyWest machine had the standard warning and use lights. But at the regional airline, it was customary to turn the entire lighting only after getting the permission to start, so in Flight 5569 only the navigation lights and anti-collision light shone. However they had the same brightness and color as the lights of the start and runway, so the plane was not to recognize certain positions for the landing USAir flight. Only during placement on the runway saw the crew of the Boeing 737 that was another machine on the runway in front of her. So even sat seconds before the disaster a male person the radio saying " What the hell? " ( In German: "What the hell ... " ) on who exactly it was, could no longer be detected. For saving maneuvers due to the speed of the jet was no time left.

In the final report of the NTSB, the human failure of the air traffic controller was called ultimately be the cause of the accident.

Follow

As consequences of the accident Boeing 737- 3B7 and the Swearingen Metro III SA.227AC the international airport of Los Angeles managed some time after a new ground penetrating radar. In addition, the technical standards have been improved and modernized. The system with the control strip has also been revised, in addition, the pilot was introduced exculpatory four-eyes principle. Five years after the collision of a new control tower was built, the 252- feet (about 76.8 meters) 92 feet (about 28 meters ) higher than its predecessor. Furthermore, airplanes must now turn their complete lighting before using the start and runways.

Despite the changes occurred at the airport Los Angeles every year more incidents in 2007 alone, a total of 27 counted. Therefore, the security systems ASDE -X for the air traffic controllers and the Runway Status Lights ( RWSL ) for aircraft crews for approximately 7.7 million dollars have been introduced (about 5.85 million euros ) in the years 2008 and 2009. As a third airport in the United States, the RWSL was installed in Los Angeles.

Filming

The accident of USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 was directed by Su Rynard in the fourth episode of the seventh season of the Canadian television series Mayday 2010 - shown alarm in the cockpit with the original English title Cleared for Disaster and the German title Ready to crash. In re-enactments, animation and interviews with crew members, passengers, witnesses and investigators have been reported on the process and the impact of the collision.