Jetliner Crashes in Pennsylvania; 130 Feared Dead : Disaster: USAir plane out of Chicago nose-dives into a field while trying to land. Eyewitness said he heard a big boom, then the sky lit up.

A USAir jetliner nose-dived into a field while trying to land near Pittsburgh on Thursday and at least 130 people were feared dead. Flight 427 originated in Chicago and was to stop in Pittsburgh before continuing to West Palm Beach, Fla.

“I looked up and there it was,” said Tom Michel. “It was just coming straight down. I was screaming for everybody to run. It looked like it was under full power and he just went straight in.

“All it was was a big boom and the sky lit up,” Michel said. “There was black smoke everywhere and that was it.”

Witnesses reported gruesome carnage.

Denise Godich, a nurse who was one of the first at the scene, said most of the bodies were unrecognizable.

“All we saw was body parts hanging from the trees,” she said. “There were people everywhere. You could just see parts of them.”

Eyewitnesses said pieces of the plane and baggage were scattered throughout the area. One told WXPI-TV: “The largest piece of the airplane that was left was the tail, and it was no bigger than I am.”

A doctor from a nearby hospital rushing to the scene with medical workers to help the injured said: “Unfortunately, there were no survivors.

“There were pieces of bodies lying on the ground, pieces of bodies in the trees,” Dr. Steven Zernich of Aliquippa Hospital, told KDKA-TV.

“The smoke was so thick that you couldn’t see anything. The fellow geared up (referring to an emergency crewman on the scene), coming out of the smoke said: ‘Doc, there are no survivors in there. You may as well turn back.’ ”

“I saw bones that were less than a foot. There was an arm, there was a hand just lying there,” he added.

Jim Bothwell, director of Stat-Medivac helicopter rescue service, said his crews, which had flown over the scene in Hopewell Township and landed briefly, also found no survivors.

Television coverage from the area showed fire engines and ambulances rushing to the scene with flashing lights and helicopters hovering overhead.

The Boeing 737 was carrying 126 passengers and a crew of five, said Dave Shipley, a spokesman for the airline. But Drucella Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the plane had 126 passengers and a crew of six.

The plane went down shortly after 7 p.m. in a field about seven miles from the airport, which is 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh airport lost radar contact with the aircraft at 6,000 feet seven miles west of the airport, said Patrick Boyle, the airport’s deputy director of aviation.

Shipley said the weather was clear. “There’s no indication at all as to what caused the accident,” he said.

The plane’s black box, which records cockpit conversations and flight data, was recovered, said Jim Eichenlaub, manager of Hopewell Township and coordinator of emergency services at the scene.

“We have done a fairly extensive search of the area and there are no survivors,” he said.

Jerry Johnson, a spokesman for Boeing Commercial Airplane Group in Renton, Wash., said the plane that went down was a 737-300 that was delivered to USAir in October, 1987. He said the 737-300 is the best-selling commercial jet in aviation history.

WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh quoted witness Kuline Brown, who saw the crash from her car, as saying: I looked up and it (the plane) was right over my car. My daughter was screaming. My God it could have just come down and hit other cars. It was going pretty fast, nose down. There was a loud boom and a lot of black smoke.”

“The engines just went dead,” eyewitness Sandra Zuback told CNN. “It just blew up.”

“I saw the tail end and it was going straight down, and then a big ball of fire came up,” witness Jack Casey told KDKA. “I spent time in Korea and it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

Linda Jones said she was standing on her porch when she saw the plane turn to the right, turn over once or twice, and go down behind some trees.

Another eyewitness, identified only as Janet, said she was 10 to 15 miles away from the crash. “I noticed that the plane was turning awfully funny and I saw the nose go down and it was going straight down and then the fire crews arrived on the scene.”

It was the fourth fatal USAir crash in the last five years.

On July 2, a USAir jetliner crashed near the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina during a thunderstorm. Thirty-seven of the 57 people on board were killed.

USAir Chairman Seth Schofield called that crash an “isolated incident.”

“You have to look at each and every incident. I think it’s unfair to characterize and put them all in the same position,” Schofield said at the time. “I don’t think anyone can put the sequences together and say this is a problem.”

The National Transportation Safety Board expects to convene three days of public hearings into the North Carolina crash, beginning Sept. 19.

On March 22, 1992, a USAir plane crashed while trying to take off in a snowstorm at La Guardia Airport in New York. Twenty-seven people were killed.

The crash was blamed on an icy buildup on the plane’s wings. Investigators blamed federal authorities for failing to properly advise flight crews how to deal with such ice; a judge later ruled that USAir’s negligence contributed to the crash.

On Feb. 1, 1991, a USAir plane and a commuter plane collided on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport; 34 people were killed. The crash was blamed on an air traffic controller who sent the planes onto the same runway.

USAir has lost money every year since 1989. It lost $393 million in 1993 and $200 million in the first quarter of this year.

It recently told Boeing Co. it would postpone delivery of 40 jets for at least six years and cancel options to buy another 76 jets. The aircraft would be used to replace older planes in USAir’s fleet.

Pittsburgh International Airport has had only one previous fatal accident. In 1956, a TWA Martin 404 propeller airliner went down, killing 22 people and injuring 14.

Adding to a Long List of Air Disasters

A USAir Boeing 737 from Chicago crashed near Pittsburgh, Pa., killing 131. The flight originated from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and was headed for West Palm Beach, Fla. This is the fifth fatal crash for the airline in five years.

The Boeing 737-300

* Delivered to USAir in October, 1987, according to a Boeing spokesman.

* Can carry from 128 to 149 passengers.

* The 737-300 is the most popular commercial airplane model ever developed.

* More than 2,600 737s have been put into service since 1967.

USAir Disasters

Five fatal crashes in five years:

* SEPT. 8, 1994: A Boeing 737 crashes near Pittsburgh, Pa., killing 131 people.

* JULY 4, 1994: A crash near Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina kills 37 of the 57 aboard.

* MARCH 22, 1992: A jetliner goes down in a snowstorm at LaGuardia Airport in New York killing 27 people.

* FEB. 1, 1991: A collision with a commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport kills 34 people.

* SEPT. 20, 1989: A jet skids off the runway at La Guardia Airport. Two killed.