Commuter Plane Crashes in Pennsylvania

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Reuters) - A twin-engine commuter plane crashed on Sunday while trying to land in poor weather at an airport in eastern Pennsylvania, killing all 19 passengers and crew, authorities said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the turboprop BA-31 Jetstream, on a flight from Atlantic City, New Jersey, crashed in a wooded area after it failed to land on its first approach to the runway at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre International Airport.

The crash occurred about nine miles from Wilkes-Barre at about 11:40 a.m., officials said. Light rain and fog had been reported in the area at about the time of the crash.

Ron Rome, intra-governmental coordinator with Luzerne County 911, said authorities were notified that a plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties and would not be able to land.

Rome said he received word later that the plane wreckage had been found and ``there were no survivors.'' He confirmed that 19 people were aboard. Earlier information said 21 people had been killed.

The crash was in Bear Creek Township, about a half mile from I-476, the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The plane was built in 1988 and was registered to Millennium Jetstream Holdings Inc. of Farmingdale, New York, as of Feb. 10, according to aviation records.

According to NTSB databases, the last fatal crash of a plane of that type was in Hibbing, Minnesota, in December 1993, when 18 people were killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was sending a team to the crash site.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000521/ts/crash_pennsylvania_3.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), May 21, 2000

Answers

Adds more info on crash

Pennsylvania Crash of Charter Plane Kills 19

By David Morgan

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Reuters) - A twin-engine plane crashed and burst into flames on a foggy mountaintop in northeastern Pennsylvania on Sunday, killing all 19 passengers and crew members on board, authorities said.

The turboprop BA-31 Jetstream developed mechanical problems after taking off from Atlantic City, New Jersey, on a charter flight and failed to land on its first approach to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, about 125 miles north of Philadelphia.

A woman who was outside in her garden told local media she heard an airplane engine rev up and cut out twice somewhere above the clouds just before the plane crashed in light rain and fog in a wooded area nine miles outside Wilkes-Barre at 11:48 a.m.

A local television station broadcast a radio transmission, between air traffic controllers and the plane's pilot and co-pilot which had been picked up by a civilian scanner.

``Tell them we've lost both engines -- We've lost both engines,'' the two men on board the plane were heard to say.

Aerial footage of the crash scene, about a mile from the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bear Creek Township near the Pocono Mountains, showed the plane's charred and mangled wreckage beneath a trees at the edge of a clearing cut out to accommodate a set of power lines.

There were no immediate details about the identities of the passengers. But officials speculated that it was a chartered excursion flight from Atlantic City, the East Coast gambling capital and coastal resort. Rescue crews and firefighters initially approached the area on all- terrain vehicles.

``It's remote. It's very remote. This could take several days just to get started,'' said Mark Carmon, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. ''Obviously, we have a very unfortunate situation.''

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive before dark from Washington to begin a federal accident probe, while state and county officials worked to set up a temporary morgue in a hanger at the airport.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member George Black, speaking to reporters at Reagan National Airport in Washington just before heading to the crash site, said the plane was registered to Executive Airlines of Long Island, New York.

He said the BA-31 Jetstream was a common short-haul aircraft manufactured by British Aerospace (BA.L), and had no significant history of aircraft problems.

Black said at the time of the crash, there was visibility of about 2- 1/2-miles with mist, and a solid cover of clouds at around 1,500 feet.

``There is some indication that they were having engine problems during the first approach, the one that was missed ... and those engine difficulties apparently continued during ... the second approach,'' Black told reporters, citing air traffic control tapes.

Black said the plane's cockpit voice data recorder had been recovered. The plane was not required under federal aviation regulations to carry a flight data recorder, which could have shed some light on the reported engine trouble.

``If we only have the cockpit recorder, we will not have any direct readout on engine power,'' he said.

Ron Rome, intra-governmental coordinator with Luzerne County 911, said authorities had been notified before the crash that the plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties and would not be able to land.

Rome said he received word later that the plane wreckage had been found, that ``there were no survivors,'' and that 19 people were aboard.

According to NTSB databases, the last fatal crash of a plane of that type was in Hibbing, Minnesota, in December 1993, when 18 people were killed.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000522/ts/crash_pennsylvania_8.htm l

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), May 22, 2000.

May 22, 2000 - 10:43 AM

Charter Plane Returning From Gambling Trip Crashes, Killing 19

By Tina Moore Associated Press Writer

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - Investigators will focus on why both engines of a chartered plane carrying 19 people from a weekend trip to Atlantic City apparently failed at the same time, federal transportation officials said today.

National Transportation Safety Board member George Black said engines failing simultaneously is "highly improbable" and could indicate some sort of systems failure.

"We'll be looking at fuel systems; we'll be looking at ignition systems, the weather - all of the variables that are associated with the operation of the engines," Black told CBS' "The Early Show" this morning. Among the possibilities, he said, was that the fuel was somehow contaminated. Investigators were trying to figure out where the plane had last refueled, he said.

Peter Hartt, spokesman for the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which operates the Atlantic City airport, said the aircraft received no maintenance or fuel there after arriving Sunday morning from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, N.Y. A telephone message left at Republic Airport was not immediately returned today.

The Jetstream 31, owned by Executive Airlines of Farmingdale, crashed Sunday in a dense and remote northeastern Pennsylvania forest, killing all those aboard.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were reviewing the transcript from air traffic controllers who spoke with the crew before the accident. The two pilots can be heard on a part of the tape saying, "we lost both engines."

Black also said that investigators now know that pilots did not indicate there were engine troubles on their first approach to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. The plane crashed while attempting a second approach.

"We said earlier - last night - that we thought there was an engine loss on the first attempt at an approach," he said. "We listened to the full tower tape last night, and there was no mention of any emergency or engine problem until the second approach."

A trail of emergency vehicles and four-wheel drive trucks had to climb winding roads through the mist-shrouded Pocono Mountains to reach the site where the twin-engine plane went down Sunday on its approach to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.

The victims' bodies were taken to a refrigerator truck that acted as a makeshift morgue until authorities can use dental records and information from families to begin identifying the remains.

The plane disappeared off radar during a second instrument approach about 11:40 a.m. Sunday, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Tammy Jones. Officials said the plane might have missed its first approach because of the weather.

"The weather was bad, it was windy and there was some precipitation. The visibility was poor," Jones said.

Michael Peragine, chief executive officer of Executive Airlines, said today that the pilot had 8,500 hours of flight time, including 4,000 hours on the type of plane that crashed, and the first officer was close to being upgraded to pilot.

"These were two expert pilots and the machine was maintained to the highest standards. You just don't have a clue as to what could have possibly happened," Peragine said.

Burned and twisted wreckage from the plane - carrying 17 passengers and two crew members - was scattered across a swath of forest about nine miles south of the airport. The plane's cockpit voice recorder was recovered, the NTSB said.

The group had been on an overnight gambling trip to Atlantic City, N.J., and the plane had been chartered by Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino. It's not unusual for casinos to charter flights for their best customers.

The group was to return at 1:15 a.m. Sunday, but fog kept the plane grounded in Farmingdale, so they spent Saturday night at a hotel, officials said.

The victims were believed to be from the area around Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, a region surrounded by dense forests and pristine lakes, popular for camping and hunting. It's about 90 miles north of Philadelphia and 150 miles northwest of Atlantic City.

Megan Maguire was outside gardening at her home near the airport when she heard a plane apparently having problems.

"I heard the engines die, then I heard them start up again, and then they just died. I heard it rev up twice, so it died twice," Maguire said.

Throughout the day Sunday, teary-eyed relatives and friends filed into the airport, where they received consolation from clergy and counselors.

"It's a small, close community, and that's what I think makes it so hard," said Lackawanna County Commissioner Randy Castellani, who arrived soon after the crash.

Airport Superintendent Jim Brunozzi said his niece's mother-in-law and father-in-law were among the victims.

"That was tough to look at the manifest and see the names," Brunozzi said. "We were a close family. It's sad."

Anthony J. Giannone, airport ground superintendent, had to console a friend whose wife was on the plane.

"He's got two small kids, and he had to leave here to tell them," Giannone said.

In the 1990s, there were three crashes of similar model airplanes. The last came in December 1994 at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15 of 20 people aboard. Sunday's crash appeared to be the worst in Pennsylvania since 1994, when a USAir 737 crashed near Pittsburgh, killing all 132 people aboard. ---

On the Net: Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov Jetstream: http://www.bae.regional.co.uk/inservice-jetstream31.htm

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIZUHS7K8C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), May 22, 2000.

Fuel contamination a possibility.

Newsday

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), May 22, 2000.