=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2003/01= /09/MN121516.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, January 9, 2003 (SF Chronicle) 21 killed in plane crash/Pilot had just reported emergency to tower in Nort= h Carolina Stephen Braun, David Lamb, Los Angeles Times Charlotte, N.C. -- A US Airways Express commuter aircraft departing Charlotte-Douglas Airport with 19 passengers and a crew of two plunged into a maintenance hangar Wednesday, killing all aboard. Seconds before the crash, witnesses said, the twin engines of the Beech 1900 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 slammed into the ground 500 feet away. Federal safety officials said air traffic controllers had 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 also said there were no signs of a criminal act. Operated = by Mesa Airlines for US Airways, Flight 5481 had started out Wednesday morning from Lynchburg, Ky., picking up 19 passengers in Charlotte for an 8:45 a.m. flight to Greenville, S.C. All 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 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 the Beech aircraft, built by the Raytheon Aircraft Co. in 1996, had a minor history of malfunctions, but all had been corrected. Among the most recent of 10 incidents, according to documents released by the Federal Aviation Administration, were a right engine shutdown on a 2000 flight because of lost oil pressure and a 2002 landing-gear failure. Although interviews with eyewitnesses were conflicting, Goglia said, both of the plane's propellers were apparently operating Wednesday. But another federal official said the aircraft's sudden dive on takeoff would most likely lead investigators to look hard at the possibility of engine failure. Both Goglia and a Raytheon spokesman that it was too early to draw any clear conclusions from the histories of the crashed aircraft and other 1900 D 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, said "everyone likes to speculate, but until the investigation is complete, we'll have to wait and see." Wednesday's crash occurred moments after Flight 5481 roared down a 10, 000-foot runway on a scheduled half-hour run to the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in Greer, S.C., 80 miles away. The weather at the airport was clear with a slight wind. As he worked on cables outside a company trailer just before 9 a.m., Stacey heard odd sputtering noises from an airplane engine overhead. He looked up to see Flight 5481 pull straight up in the air, then dive downward. The ground shook and a vortex of flame leaped 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. Airport firefighters sprayed water and fire-retardant chemicals into the roiling shroud of gray smoke and 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. A passenger and crew list released by US Airways on Wednesday night indicated that at least six of the victims were from Florida, three from North Carolina, one from Las Vegas and most of the rest from Northern states. Two victims were from India, and three were from the Bahamas.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle