Controller in Crash Was Taken Off Job in Military : Safety: U.S. reports also say she lost track of plane in recent evaluation. Pilot had traces of drug in system.

The air traffic controller involved in the Los Angeles runway disaster last February had been relieved of duty as a military controller 14 years ago and urged to seek psychiatric help after her parents died in a light plane crash, federal reports revealed Monday.

In addition, the reports say that during her most recent performance evaluation in December, 1990, the controller lost track of a plane taxiing onto a runway on which another plane was about to land--an incident that sounds eerily similar to the one that led to the Feb. 1 collision that killed 34 people at Los Angeles International Airport.

The reports also state that the pilot of one of the planes involved in the collision had traces of phenobarbital, a strong sedative, in his system when he died in the crash. Federal rules prohibit a pilot from using such drugs before a flight.

Some critics say these disclosures are symptomatic of continuing problems with the agencies that oversee the nation’s aviation system.

“This . . . certainly raises alarming questions,” said Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae), chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Aviation Administration.

The investigation reports released Monday indicate military records on the controller involved in the crash were not received by the FAA until after she was hired in 1982. Boxer said she will hold hearings on the quality of personnel who were hired to replace striking controllers fired by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. “I’m going to look at whether . . . the FAA lowered their standards, “ she said.

Boxer also said the FAA has been “playing with disaster” by foot-dragging on an array of safety improvements, such as replacing an outdated, troublesome ground radar system at LAX that figures in the crash probe.

The investigative reports were made public as the National Transportation Safety Board opened hearings here as part of its investigation into the causes of the collision. The board’s conclusions and recommendations are not expected for several months.

Investigators said the accident occurred when controller Robin Lee Wascher cleared a USAir jetliner to land on a runway where she had just positioned a SkyWest commuter liner for takeoff.

Wascher had been an Air Force sergeant, working as a controller at a military field in Mississippi, when her parents’ light plane disappeared on June 11, 1977, after taking off from Eureka. The plane has never been found.

A month later, she told an Air Force flight surgeon that the death of her parents left her “incapable of controlling traffic safely,” according to NTSB reports.

The safety board says the Air Force promptly “grounded” Wascher and told her to visit a military mental health clinic. She was examined at the clinic 15 days later.

The next day, she was given an honorable discharge from the service.

Citing privacy concerns, the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration have withheld details of Wascher’s medical records and the reasons for her military discharge from the investigative reports that are being made public.

She eventually became a civilian air traffic controller for the FAA and, in 1989, she was assigned to the control tower at Los Angeles International.

Wascher, 39, has told investigators she was handling planes using the two north runways on Feb. 1 when she confused the SkyWest commuter plane with another aircraft and accidentally directed it into the path of the landing jetliner, a Boeing 737.

The 737 touched down on the runway and slammed into the commuter plane, and both aircraft exploded in flames.

Colleagues have said the lapse was not typical of Wascher, and federal investigators have not suggested that any incidents from her past in any way contributed to February’s accident. Wascher told investigators she had no permanent emotional problems as a result of her parents’ deaths.

Wascher has not responded to requests for comment from the news media.

Records show that Wascher enrolled at the FAA academy on Feb. 28, 1982, as one of the replacements hired after thousands of striking controllers were fired by President Ronald Reagan. At the time she was hired, the FAA did not have copies of her military medical records, according to the safety board.

After an unspecified delay, the FAA received and reviewed her Air Force records, and the safety board says this review prompted the FAA “to request Ms. Wascher to undergo psychological and psychiatric evaluations as a condition of continued employment.”

Following these evaluations, psychiatrist Bart Pakull of the FAA’s Office of Aviation Medicine reported on April 7, 1983, that there was “no evidence of sufficient psychopathology to come to any determination that this applicant would be medically unqualified for air-traffic control work,” the board said.

“Ms. Wascher’s FAA medical records contained no further entries on this matter or other information to indicate any inability to meet applicable FAA standards,” the safety board added.

An FAA spokesman in Washington declined to comment on the medical records and the circumstances surrounding Wascher’s hiring.

The FAA said that while Wascher received an overall rating of satisfactory during her most recent performance evaluation, on Dec. 14, 1990, deficiencies were listed during two of the four 10-minute rating periods.

An FAA reviewer stated that during one of the periods, Wascher’s “awareness was not maintained” on a plane “rolling out on Runway 25-L” while another plane was making its final approach to the runway. While details of the incident are not given in the report, it is noted that the approaching plane aborted its landing attempt.

In summarizing that rating session, the reviewer stated that her “coordination is not thorough.” During another of the periods, the reviewer noted that “aircraft radar identity is not maintained” on one plane and, again, “coordination is not thorough.”

Post-mortem toxicological tests performed on urine, liver fluid and brain tissue from Colin F. Shaw, captain of the 737, showed small traces of phenobarbital, a barbiturate that can slow reaction times, according to the NTSB.

Under FAA regulations, pilots are specifically prohibited from using phenobarbital before flying.

Despite the findings from the toxicological tests, there has been no suggestion by safety board investigators that Shaw’s ability to fly was impaired by the drug at the time of the crash or that the conduct of the 737 crew was in any way remiss in the minutes leading up to the accident. Shaw’s co-pilot, David Kelly, was at the controls when the accident occurred.

David Povich, an attorney for the Shaw family, said the amount of phenobarbital found in Shaw’s system would have no “influence whatsoever on his performance.”

The post-mortem tests showed no evidence of other drugs or alcohol in Shaw’s system, the safety board said.

An examination of Shaw’s flight bag, which was recovered from the wreckage, showed that it contained a vial of phenobarbital, the label of which had been removed. Three 12-ounce cans of beer were found in his suitcase.

Because of the toxicological findings, the safety board formed a special three-doctor medical team to review Shaw’s medical history.

The doctors found that although Shaw had never reported his use of phenobarbital to his FAA-licensed medical examiner, as required by law, he had been using the drug since the mid-to-late 1970s for treatment of a peptic ulcer, according to his personal physicians. The physicians’ notes state that “the patient does admit to drinking four to five cans of beer daily,” the NTSB report said. Povich said Shaw was not a heavy drinker and stressed that no alcohol was found in his system after the crash.

Records show that Shaw had never reported any gastrointestinal illness to the FAA medical examiner. Under FAA regulations, pilots are required to report any ongoing medical problems to a medical examiner when undergoing the physical examinations required for issuance or renewal of flight licenses and medical certificates. Povich said he did not know why Shaw had not reported the use of the drug.

Shaw’s wife, Susan, from whom he was legally separated, told safety board investigators that her husband used phenobarbital to treat stomach disorders and on at least one occasion had used the drug before making a performance evaluation flight.

She said her husband would drink “a few beers” when off duty and she had seen him drink until intoxicated, but only on rare and special occasions.

She said that after the accident, she disposed of a 3-year-old prescription for phenobarbital that she found. She said the container held about 15 to 20 tablets.

Shaw’s personal physicians, Anwar T. Munshi and Atrul Shah, told NTSB investigators that the captain used phenobarbital only rarely and showed no evidence of substance abuse.

Both doctors recalled that Shaw had used phenobarbital “for gastrointestinal discomfort which was secondary to a feeling of apprehension, during a period while he was in training, and in his hotel room after a flight,” the NTSB report said.

“They recalled that they had warned him not to use the medication ‘while flying’ and that Captain Shaw had said that he did not.”

Another of the investigative reports showed that the airport’s 20-year-old ground radar system, which was malfunctioning at the time of the crash and might have helped Wascher see that a plane was sitting on the runway, had a history of service problems dating back at least 10 years.

The problems were exacerbated in 1986 when the FAA, for safety reasons, ordered the old vacuum tube system to be turned on seven days a week between sunset and sunrise. The increased use put extra strain on the aging system.

With breakdowns of the system becoming prolonged and ground traffic at the airport increasing, local FAA officials wrote to the agency’s regional headquarters in late 1987 complaining “we have a serious problem” and it was “imperative” that Los Angeles International obtain a more reliable system, according to the NTSB.

Nonetheless, the problems continued, and just weeks before the crash a local traffic controllers’ association official filed a complaint about the ground radar system with the FAA. Wascher told investigators that the ground radar system had been out since October. She said that while it is a “crummy” system, she used it because it was better than nothing.

Chris Witkowski, director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, a group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader to lobby for airline safety improvements, said Monday’s disclosures highlight deficiencies at the FAA. He said the FAA may have taken shortcuts when hiring controllers after the 1982 strike.

“These kinds of things, such as the pilot not reporting the fact he was taking phenobarbital and the controller being hired before the FAA had a full and complete report of her medical history, basically indicate that the FAA, in some instances, is not on top of the situation,” Witkowski said. “Whether or not it was relevant in this particular accident, it does indicate that the FAA needs to maintain tighter control over these factors that maintain system safety.”

Fritz Korth, FAA spokesman in Washington said it was “ludicrous” and “unequivocally” false to suggest shortcuts were taken in hiring controllers after the strike.

“The personnel we have working for us are fully competent of carrying out their duties in the maintenance of safety in the air traffic system,” he said. “That’s the number one priority of FAA--safety. That is what everyone is working toward.”