2,000 Gather to Mourn Victims Who Died in Crash of Flight 427

Hymns echoed softly through a crowded downtown square Monday as 2,000 people gathered at lunchtime to mourn the victims of USAir Flight 427.

“Maybe God will give me some answers to what happened,” said Pam Kastelmeyer, whose neighbor’s daughter was among 132 people killed when the jet crashed Thursday in a wooded ravine.

Some were stoic through several prayers, but they broke down and sobbed when a priest read the names of the dead. A wreath stood in front of a stage on Market Square, in the business district.

Investigators continued to search for clues Monday. They were trying to determine if the right engine went into reverse before the plane nose-dived.

Witnesses told investigators the jet rolled to the left before it crashed. John Nance, an air safety analyst in Seattle, said that if the right engine’s thrust was reversed, the plane would have rolled right.

He cautioned that “this impact was so horrendous and the scattered parts so thoroughly hashed up that no conclusion right now, no matter how obvious it might seem, can be relied on.”

Boeing Co. officials also cast doubt on the theory that a flaw in the thrust reverser system in one engine caused the Boeing 737 jetliner to crash.

Boeing spokesman Steve Thieme said it would be virtually impossible for the braking system to partially deploy. “Because of the design of the system, we don’t know how that could happen.”

Nevertheless, Thieme said, Boeing engineers will use simulators to determine if such a scenario could have occurred.