Problems With Controls Probed in Plane Crash : Grand Canyon Airliner on Which 10 Died Had Prior Landing Troubles

Attention focused Thursday on possible problems with the directional controls of a sightseeing airliner that crashed when attempting a landing at Grand Canyon Airport on Wednesday, killing 10 and injuring 11.

A survivor said that she had seen the cockpit crew struggling with the controls in the moments before the crash, and Federal Aviation Administration records indicate that, last February, the De Havilland Twin Otter had veered to the right when attempting a landing at the airport, striking a wing tip on the runway.

The records say the plane “lost directional control” in the Feb. 27 incident, possibly as a result of a “nose-wheel centering problem.” Ronald L. Warren, vice president and general manager of Grand Canyon Airlines, said he did not know whether there had been a final determination of the cause of the Feb. 27 incident.

Two Men on Plane

The records show that, during the February incident, only two men were aboard the aircraft--a pilot trainee and William Welch, 47, of Sedona, Ariz., captain of the flight that crashed on Wednesday. Neither man was injured.

Warren said that the plane, built in 1975 and bought by Grand Canyon Airlines two years ago from an operator in Alaska, had performed well, with no major mechanical problems.

Katherine Mayes, 66, told reporters from her hospital bed in Flagstaff, Ariz., Thursday that she had seen Welch and co-pilot Keith Crosson, 43, of Kailua Kona, Hawaii, fighting the controls on Wednesday as the turboprop airliner touched down on the runway.

Mayes, a Nashville, Tenn., resident, said that, seconds after the plane’s right wheel touched down, the aircraft “shot straight up” in the air again.

She said she heard a loud buzzing sound as the plane made a slow U-turn to the left before crashing on its side in a hillside grove of scrub pine about 300 yards from the runway.

Mayes, who suffered a broken pelvis and severely bruised shoulder in the crash, said she had dragged herself from the wreckage.

“I crawled as far away as I could and I waited for the medics,” she said. “It seemed like an eternity.”

Welch and Crosson were among nine people listed by the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department Thursday as having died in the crash. The identity of the 10th person killed--said to be a woman tourist from Scotland--was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The identified dead, in addition to the cockpit crew, were Joyce Jones, 52, of Woodbridge, Va.; Lorraine Murphy, 75, of Random Lake, Wis.; Barbara Marchand, 61, of Meriden, Conn.; Eugenia Sheehan, 78, of Youngstown, Ohio; John Sutton, 65, and his wife, Donna, 63, of Modesto; and Helen Zuckerman, 64, of Boca Raton, Fla.

The survivors, in addition to Mayes, are Florence Bickley, 63, of Manchester, Conn.; Minnie Bowden, 59, of Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Susan Cline, 42, of Farmington, Mich.; Catherine Hampton, 55, of Walnut Creek, Calif.; Virgil Jones, 54, of Woodbridge, Va.; Jesse Murphy, 75, of Random Lake; Ellen Newman, 75, of Youngstown; Joanne Pembleton, 57, of Murfreesboro; Mary Shaver, 57, of Nashville, Tenn., and Julius Zuckerman, 67, of Boca Raton.

All eleven of the survivors remained hospitalized Thursday at the Flagstaff Medical Center, about 70 miles from the crash site.

Laurin Bosse, an administrator at the medical center, said that Jones, the most seriously injured of the survivors, was in guarded condition on Thursday, suffering from severe head injuries.

Bosse said that the other survivors were listed in serious or stable condition.

“Generally speaking, there’s a lot of fractures--hip, pelvis, leg and arm,” she said. “There are a lot of lacerations, and a lot of bruising about the head, face and chest . . . . A lot of them are still under sedation.”

National Transportation Safety board investigators are expected to spend four or five more days at the scene in their efforts to piece together evidence on what caused the crash.

Grand Canyon Airlines spokesmen said that there was no indication of any kind of trouble during the 55-minute flight over the eastern end of the Grand Canyon.

John Lauber, the NTSB member heading up the investigation, said Thursday that transcripts of conversations between the cockpit crew and air traffic controllers at the airport confirmed earlier reports that nothing was said to indicate any problems as the plane came in on final approach.

“They were cleared to land, and that was the last communication with the aircraft,” Lauber said.