Federal Investigators Seek Cause of Jets’ Collision : Aviation: Possible pilot disorientation in fog and the adequacy of guidance for planes on the ground at Detroit airport are being examined.

How a DC-9 airliner strayed onto a fog-shrouded runway being used by another plane was the focus of an investigation that opened Tuesday into Monday’s collision of two Northwest Airlines passenger jets that left eight dead and 21 injured.

“It sounds like the guy just got lost,” Barry Schiff, a veteran airline pilot and aviation safety expert, said after reviewing preliminary reports on the crash at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport.

“There are no valid systems in place to prevent this kind of accident when visibility is poor,” Schiff said. “Runway incursions are becoming a big, big problem.”

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is conducting the investigation of the crash, said it is still too early to determine why the accident occurred. Investigators refused Tuesday to detail much of what they had learned from recordings recovered from the planes and from interviews with some members of the cockpit crews.

However, Tony Dresden, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn., said the taped conversations between controllers and the DC-9 cockpit crew show that the pilot became disoriented in the heavy fog as he headed toward a taxiway parallel to the runway.

“The pilot gave the ground controller erroneous information about his position and turned right onto the runway,” Dresden said.

Dresden said that, based on the pilot’s position report, the controller told him to continue on his way, and the DC-9 taxied directly down the runway, straight for the other plane, a Boeing 727, which was accelerating toward it at more than 100 m.p.h.

“At the last second, the pilot realized where he was,” Dresden said. “He said something like: ‘I think I’m on runway 21C.’ The controller told him to get immediately off the runway. But, by that time, it was too late.”

John Lauber, the National Transportation Safety Board member heading up the investigation, said Tuesday night that an initial review of radio transmission recordings showed there were “numerous communications between aircraft controllers and the DC-9 on exactly where they were.”

In addition, he said, a third Northwest cockpit crew said it heard a plane report “that they were unsure of where they were. That it could have been on 9-27, it could have been on 3-21.”

Runway 3-21 was the runway on which the collision occurred. Run 9-27 is an intersecting runway.

Further evidence that the DC-9 cockpit crew was lost in the fog was broadcast Tuesday by NBC News, which said it had obtained a partial transcript of an exchange between the air traffic controller and the pilot, stating:

Controller: “Verify position.”

Pilot: “Uh, we’re not sure. It’s so foggy out here, we’re completely stuck here. Looks like we’re on 21-Center here.”

Controller: “You say you’re on runway 21-Center?”

Pilot: “We believe we are, we’re not sure.”

Controller: “If you’re on 21-Center, exit the runway immediately, sir.”

The planes collided moments later.

The 727, taking off for Memphis, Tenn., with 145 passengers and a crew of eight, was in a nose-high position, just seconds from liftoff, when it struck the DC-9 about halfway down the runway.

The DC-9, bound for Pittsburgh, Pa., with 40 passengers and a crew of four, burst into flames and skidded to a halt near the point of impact. The 727, which suffered only superficial damage, except to one wingtip, hurtled down the runway another 2,500 feet before rolling to a stop.

Wayne County officials said the emergency crews put the DC-9 fire out within three minutes, but, by that time, most of the fuselage had been gutted. The eight who died were found in the aisle of the plane, where they had succumbed to the roiling flames and thick, black smoke--apparently in a futile attempt to reach the plane’s emergency exits.

Eight of the injured remained hospitalized Tuesday, most of them suffering from burns. All the dead and severely injured were from the DC-9. All were passengers except Heidi Joost, a 43-year-old flight attendant from Dearborn, Mich., who was one of those killed. The names of the other victims were not released.

The pilot of the DC-9--Flight 1482--was identified Tuesday as William Lovelace, 52, a resident of Phoenix. The co-pilot was James Schifferns, 43, of Spokane, Wash.

The 727--Flight 299--was piloted by Capt. Robert Oulette, 42, of Dallas, and two crew members.

The co-pilot was William Hagedorm, 37, of Pleasant Lake, Mich. The 727 also carried a flight engineer, Darren Owen, 31, of Pensacola, Fla.

The NTSB said Lovelace was at the controls of the DC-9 when the plane strayed onto the runway.

Northwest said both crews are based in Detroit and all five men are thoroughly familiar with the layout and procedures at Metropolitan Airport. The airline said the records of all five men are exemplary and all are experienced and fully qualified.

Lovelace recently returned to duty after a five-year medical leave because of kidney stones. Northwest said he came to work for the airline 24 years ago and was promoted to captain six years before his medical leave began. He has 20,000 hours’ experience as a pilot.

Schifferns has far less experience as a commercial pilot, having just 150 hours with Northwest after a 20-year career as an Air Force pilot and flight instructor.

As NTSB investigators studied recordings, sifted records, probed wreckage and interviewed member of the cockpit crews Tuesday in the continuing search to determine why the accident occurred, questions arose about how planes are guided during foul weather at Metropolitan Airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesmen said controllers at the field here lack any sort of ground-surveillance radar to help them keep track of airplanes on taxiways and runways during periods of low visibility.

As a result, they said, controllers must rely on position reports from the pilots on the ground to determine exactly where the planes are if visibility is too poor to spot them from the control tower.

Dresden’s report suggests what can happen if these position reports are inaccurate.

He said that even the relatively unsophisticated first-generation ground-scanning radar currently available at about a dozen other major U.S. airfields, including Los Angeles International Airport, often fails to pinpoint aircraft accurately.

A new system, now being tested at the airport in Pittsburgh, Pa., is said to work much better. That system is scheduled to be installed here sometime next summer or fall.