Jetliner Crashes in N. Carolina; 19 Dead, 31 Hurt

A USAir jetliner feeling its way through a thunderstorm Saturday at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport tried at the last moment to turn and climb but crashed instead into a house and burned, killing at least 19 of the 55 people aboard.

Hospital officials said at least two people inside the home were injured and that one person driving past was hurt by flying debris.

At 11:20 p.m. EDT, Jerry Orr, the airport aviation director, said 19 passengers aboard Flight 1016, en route from Columbia, S.C., were dead. An additional 31 people were taken to hospitals in the Charlotte area, he said, including the pilot, co-pilot and all three flight attendants.

He said five people were missing.

A witness said one man ran from the wreckage screaming: “Help me! Help me! I’m on fire!”

One woman at the scene told reporters that she saw several people who were burnedand that some had suffered broken bones. Some said they had seen others inside the wreckage who were also on fire.

Some victims were hysterical, the woman said. She said they were trying to find their loved ones and that some were crying out their names.

In Atlanta, Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the jet, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashed at about 6:50 p.m. EDT while “executing a missed approach procedure.”

“It came in, attempted to land, wasn’t able to do so and was pulling up, which is a normal type of procedure,” she said, “except in this case unfortunately it did not make it.”

A team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board left Washington late Saturday for Charlotte to determine what caused the missed approach. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena was expected to fly to the crash site today.

At the time, airport officials said, a thunderstorm had reduced visibility to about a mile.

The officials said the last radio message from the cockpit about 6:40 p.m. informed the airport tower that the pilot would try a second approach to the runway. Normally, these officials said, that meant turning to the right, climbing and circling once.

Instead, the plane veered out of control, Orr said. He said it sheared off the tops of some telephone poles, fell onto a field, slid into some woods and then careened across a road.

The plane broke into three large pieces, he said.

He said the rear section of the aircraft came to rest on part of the house and caused it to burn.

Phillip Robinson, a minister who lives near the airport, was watching planes take off and land when he saw the jet crash.

It fell about 200 yards away.

Robinson told the Associated Press that heavy rain made the visibility so poor that he could not see the airport tower.

When the wreckage finally skidded to a halt, Robinson said, a man in a military uniform ran from the plane with his clothing in flames. Robinson said the man screamed: “Help me! Help me! I’m on fire.”

Robinson said he was too far away to be of any immediate assistance. He said he and others nearby shouted at the man to roll on the ground until the fire was out.

Another witness, Connie Abrams, told NBC News that she saw survivors from the plane who were very badly burned.

“There was blood everywhere. Some of them were trying to find their loved ones. They were running, they were screaming. They couldn’t think clearly,” she said.

As the survivors fled, helicopters hovered over the crash site, trying to find victims in the woods and the surrounding area. Officials told Reuters News Service that the choppers were equipped with special equipment sensitive to body heat.

The helicopters took the most seriously injured survivors to the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where Brenda Street, a spokeswoman, said 14 people were being treated.

She said three were members of the flight crew, two were from the house that was hit and nine were passengers from the plane. Street said the injured suffered burns, inhalation problems, broken bones and chest and abdominal injuries.

“We have a couple that are very critical, but everybody is in pretty serious condition,” she said. “No one will be leaving for home tonight.”

Janice Walker, a spokeswoman at Presbyterian Hospital, said it was treating seven injured people. She said two were flight attendants and four were passengers from the plane. The seventh, Walter said, was driving on the street where pieces of the jet came to rest and was hit by flying debris.

Two of the passengers at Presbyterian Hospital were a 2-year-old and a mother, Walker said, and a third was a 13-year-old who had been traveling on the plane alone.

Among the other injured were two passengers taken to Mercy Hospital, according to Kim Richwood, a spokeswoman. He said both had broken bones, lacerations and burns.

In addition, one firefighter was taken to Mercy Hospital suffering from heat exhaustion.

Another motorist narrowly escaped harm. Sheila Torrence said she was driving down Wallace Neel Road, where the some of the wreckage of the plane ended up, when she was startled to find flames shooting around her car. She said telephone wires fell from poles along the road and wrapped the car completely.

Torrence said she was unable to get the driver’s door open and fled through the passenger door.

The cockpit of the plane was found intact in the front yard of the house, which is located about half a mile from the airport runway.

Bobbitt reported from Charlotte and Stanley reported from Atlanta. Times staff writer Richard E. Meyer contributed to this story from New York.