Tragedy Adds to Tension for Airport Users : Scene: Many at LAX already fear the worst because of terrorism threats related to the Gulf War. Some thought crash was a bomb.

It was 6:10 p.m.--almost time for her break--when Claudia Hawkins pulled her airport shuttle into Lot C. It was full of passengers and they all jumped when the flash appeared in the sky.

In unison, it seemed, the dozen yelled, “Look!”

“It was a ball of fire,” Hawkins said. “One young man said he thought for sure he saw the tail end of a plane fall off. First thing everybody thought was it was a bomb. What else are you supposed to think?”

In other times, those of a mind to suspect the worst might have decided simply and grimly that an airplane had gone down. But times are tense these days at Los Angeles International Airport. Wartime security is in force. Workers report that bomb threats seem to be called in daily. Security guards stop all but ticketed passengers long before they can reach the gate.

So when minutes passed and the news over Hawkins’ shuttle radio carried no mention of terrorism, it came as a mild surprise.

“Everybody is scared, everybody,” said Oliver Jacobs, who also buses passengers from one terminal to the next. Even the current lack of traffic jams, Jacobs said, is a sign that people are uncomfortable around airports.

“Look at this,” Jacobs said, gesturing toward the broad expanse of virtually empty roadway circling through the airport. “This is a Friday night, man, it’s usually our busiest night.”

Inside the baggage claim entrance at the USAir terminal, word that Flight 1493 had crashed ricocheted from one person to the next. “Did you hear?” they asked each other breathlessly in the car rental lines and in front of the arrival and departure monitors.

At a chrome bank of pay phones, a crowd suddenly hushed as a man in a leather bomber jacket frantically dialed USAir. His mother was on the plane, he explained. Was she still alive? There was a pause, then he slumped in relief. “Thank God, oh thank God!” he cried.

He slammed down the phone and dashed for the escalators that would take him to Gate 4-A. Stopped by a security guard at the top, he was almost too emotional to explain his mission. “My mother,” he sputtered, “my mother, I got to get to the gate.” The guard let him pass.

At the bottom of the escalator, a crowd of the curious silently looked on. There was little action, no televisions nearby to watch. Still, they hoped for news.

“I’m hoping some of the passengers will come through in a little while. I need to find out what happened,” said Larry Wynton of Hawthorne. Wynton, who was visiting his brother, an airline employee, said he had been standing there, rooted to the same spot for 15 minutes. Aside from the brief drama that had taken less than 30 seconds at the top of the escalator, there was nothing else to see.

Beyond the USAir terminal, airport life was the usual bustle of late arrivals and annoying delays. Here and there, however, shock waves from the horrifying news were spreading.

As he cruised to his car in an airport shuttle, Lloyd Dixon, a Los Angeles lawyer, explained how he was late arriving from San Diego because of the crash. “We were just starting to taxi when they told us LAX was closed and only one runway was available,” he said. “I didn’t find out that there had been a crash till we landed and we passed it coming in.

“If it hadn’t been so tragic, (the sight) would have been almost funny. I could see (the plane) sticking out of a building.”

Eugene Kluter, flying home to Mission Viejo from Washington, said he also saw the charred wreckage as his plane taxied to his gate. An ex-Air Force pilot, he surveyed the damage from the porthole near his seat. The plane’s midsection was caved in, he noticed, and its nose was intact.

“It’s kind of unusual to have a plane just catch fire upon landing,” he said. “What did I think? I wondered if someone had managed to stow something like a bomb in the cargo hold.”

HOT LINE

Police have set up a Casualty Information Center for those who want to get information on relatives aboard the USAir flight that crashed at Los Angeles International Airport. The number: (213) 485-5383