Pilot in Fatal Crash Described Dense Fog : Aviation: Hearings begin on Detroit collision that killed 8. Interviews made public reflect disorientation of flight crew in the thick weather.

The confusion of a cockpit crew blinded by fog was revealed in interviews and recordings made public Monday as federal hearings began on a runway collision between two Northwest Airlines jetliners last December that killed eight and injured 21.

“It was the worst fog I’d ever seen,” William Lovelace, captain of Flight 1482, told investigators as he recalled how his plane strayed onto the runway and into the path of the other jet, which was accelerating toward it at more than 100 m.p.h.

“I stopped the aircraft and could just see the beginning of a white line,” the 52-year-old pilot said, according to a transcript of the interview. “I saw off to my left side what looked like a flashlight, or a small diamond. I realized it was a white light, which told me I could be on an active runway.

“I taxied the airplane to the left of the runway edge and stopped,” he said. “I picked up the mike and told ground control: ‘We do not know where we are,’ or ‘We are lost’. . . .

“I then looked up and saw the Boeing 727 coming right at us.”

Seconds later, the 727 slammed into Lovelace’s DC-9.

The 727 sustained relatively little damage, and none of those aboard were injured. But the DC-9 caught fire, and eight of its occupants succumbed to impact injuries and burns as an inferno swept through the plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board hearings are part of an investigation to determine why Flight 1482, bound for Pittsburgh with 40 passengers and a crew of four, strayed into the path of Flight 299, which was taking off for Memphis, Tenn., with 153 on board.

Investigators say it is still far too early to affix any blame over the crash, but the transcripts made public Monday provide an account of the incident in the words of the pilots and air traffic controllers involved.

Cockpit voice recordings show that Lovelace chatted about the weather with his co-pilot, James Schifferns, 43, as the two awaited clearance to taxi away from the gate at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport.

“Visibility’s really going down,” Schifferns said.

Ten minutes later, with no noticeable improvement in the visibility, Flight 1482 was cleared by traffic controllers in the airport tower to begin taxiing away from the gate.

“Jim, you just watch and make sure I go the right way,” Lovelace, who was at the controls, told Schifferns. “ . . . That fog is pretty bad here.”

The cockpit crew of Flight 299, which had just pulled away from its gate, also noted the thickening weather.

“That visibility is really starting to get down there, isn’t it?” Flight 299’s co-pilot, William H. Hagedorn, 37, remarked to his captain, Robert J. Ouellette, 42.

Tower controllers told Flight 1482 to head for a taxiway intersection known as “Oscar Six,” en route to a taxiway known as “Foxtrot,” and Schifferns acknowledged the instruction.

“Man, I can’t see . . . out here,” Schifferns told Lovelace.

The controller, who could not see any of the planes because of the fog, and the DC-9 co-pilot continued their exchange, with Schifferns eventually telling the tower: “Think we’re on Foxtrot now.”

In the cockpit of the 727, Hagedorn, listening to the same radio frequency, commented to Ouellette: “I don’t think so.”

Then, while Flight 299 was taking the correct and more direct route to the takeoff point on Runway 3-21 center, the tower correctly surmised that Flight 1482 was disoriented. A controller instructed the DC-9 pilots to follow a more circuitous route, passing through a six-way intersection that some pilots find confusing enough to nickname “Spaghetti Junction.”

The tower then cleared Flight 1482 to taxi through the junction and across Runway 9-27, which required a sharp right turn. But instead, in the fog, 1482 made a less acute right turn, which led it directly onto Runway 21 Center, the “active” runway on which Flight 299 was about to take off.

More seconds passed.

“Northwest 1482, just to verify, you are proceeding southbound on X-Ray now and you are across (Runway) 9-27?” the tower asked.

“Ah, we’re not sure. It’s so foggy out here we’re completely stuck,” Lovelace radioed back. “ . . . We’re on a runway.”

After a pause, the captain added: “It looks like we’re on Runway 21 Center.”

“I’ve got a lost aircraft and I think he’s on the runway!” controller John Eby shouted to everyone in the tower.

“Stop all the traffic,” Marcia Boliard, the tower supervisor ordered.

But it was too late. Flight 299, given clearance to take off moments earlier, had already begun its takeoff run.