Icing Probed as Possible Factor in Plane Crash
Hampered by ankle-deep mud and volatile pools of unburned jet fuel, federal aviation officials Tuesday combed the flattened remains of American Eagle Flight 4184, looking at icing as one possible factor in the crash that killed all 68 people on board.
One of the victims was identified Tuesday as John F. (Jay) Ganong, 52, of Orange, a national marketing manager for an Irvine company who had been going to a trade show in Chicago.
Investigators and emergency teams clad in protective hazardous-material suits ranged over a mile-wide stretch of wreckage, its sprawl a clue that the French-built turboprop commuter plane may have broken up in midair before plunging into a rain-raked field of soybean stubble.
Aviation officials had not yet narrowed their probe of the crash--still considering severe turbulence and other causes--but the driving rain and freezing temperatures aloft on Monday raised the possibility of icing of the wings or fuselage as a factor.
The National Weather Service reported “light to moderate” turbulence and icing in the area--with “no remarkable” weather phenomena--at the time of the crash, Jim Hall, the National Transportation Safety Board chairman, told a news conference Tuesday night.
The surface temperature at the crash site was 42 degrees when the commuter flight plunged downward at a sharp angle, and was well below freezing at 8,000 feet--the altitude at which it disappeared from air traffic controllers’ radar screen at 3:56 p.m. Monday.
The ATR-72, a twin-engine craft used throughout the aviation world, does not have a known history of safety problems. But its precursor--a smaller version of the same plane--did, according to knowledgeable officials.
“The 42 had a well-known icing problem. When they built the 72, we don’t know whether they fixed it or not,” an official said.
Ed Martell, a spokesman for American Eagle, a commuter arm of American Airlines, said that in 1987, an ATR-42 flown by a European airline developed icing problems and crashed in Italy.
When temperatures approach freezing levels and humidity is high, ice can build up in thicknesses that may be all but undetectable to the naked eye. The accumulating ice can distort the shape of a wing, reducing its ability to lift, and the added weight can overburden the plane.
Icing, however, was only one of several factors considered Tuesday by NTSB investigators. Analysts also were intrigued by the spread of the plane’s wreckage--which hints at midair disintegration--and reports of severe windstorms at about 9,000 feet, where the plane began its fatal plummet.
Barry Schiff, a veteran airline pilot who has assisted in major crash investigations, said a combination of severe turbulence and the strains put on the plane by efforts to control the aircraft could have caused a breakup that scattered the plane over such a wide radius.
NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said that both of the plane’s “black boxes” had been recovered and sent to Washington for analysis. One, the cockpit voice recorder, provides a readout of pilot conversations and other sounds in the half an hour before the crash. The flight data recorder is expected to provide information on 100 technical aspects of the flight, ranging from airspeed and altitude to the craft’s course.
Although both devices were severely battered in the crash, their recording systems are in good condition and should provide important clues about what went wrong.
At the crash site Tuesday, the first examination of the wreckage proceeded slowly, as search teams took pains to avoid spilled jet fuel and other contaminants. The previous day’s slanting rain was gone, replaced by sunny skies.
“It’s going the way it should, but we’ve learned from recent crashes that we have to be careful every step of the way,” said Jack Scott, an Indiana Emergency Management field coordinator.
Unburned fuel posed a hazard both because of its flammability and because of its noxious fumes, Scott said. Officials planned to use foam to render it harmless, he added.
Investigators could only approach the cordoned-off crash site in blue and white hazard suits. Crews were decontaminated in mobile antiseptic chambers before leaving to avoid infection by blood-borne diseases--a practice pioneered after the September crash of a Boeing 737 near Pittsburgh, Pa.
Those returning from the Indiana crash scene said much of the remains was unrecognizable.
The grim job of removing the mangled remains of the victims will begin today, Hall said.
Specialists from the FBI will join local coroners’ officials in the arduous, time-consuming task of identifying the fragmented bodies.
* VICTIM ‘HAD IT ALL’: Family and colleagues mourn Jay Ganong of Orange. A25
