American Eagle Plane Crashes in N.C.; 10 Killed

An American Eagle commuter plane carrying 19 people to Raleigh-Durham International Airport crashed about four miles southwest of the airport Tuesday, killing at least 10 people. At least six people survived.

Flight 3379 was en route from Greensboro, N.C., to Raleigh-Durham when it crashed in foggy, rainy weather about 6:40 p.m. EST. It was the second crash of an American Eagle plane in less than two months and the second American Eagle crash at Raleigh-Durham. The plane was not one of the ATR aircraft that were recently grounded because of icing concerns.

“We’re told it is down four miles southwest of Raleigh-Durham,” said Don Bedwell, a spokesman for American Airlines, American Eagle’s parent airline.

Sixteen passengers and three crew members were aboard the Jetstream Super 31 turboprop, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.

At least six survivors were taken to hospitals, and rescuers were searching for other possible survivors late Tuesday, said airport spokeswoman Teresa Damiano.

North Carolina State Police spokesman Greg Whitehouse confirmed that 10 people had died.

Two of the survivors were taken to Rex Hospital in Raleigh and another four were taken to University of North Carolina hospitals. Their conditions were not immediately available.

The plane was on approach to the airport in 37-degree weather when it went down in a rugged, wooded residential area just outside the small town of Morrisville, between Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

It broke into two large pieces, with wreckage scattered over a 500-foot area, Damiano said.

Because of the rain and the rugged terrain, rescuers had to use four-wheel drive vehicles to get to the area, said fire marshal spokesman Chris Perry.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were en route to the crash site Tuesday night, Damiano said.

American Eagle grounded all 41 of its ATR commuter airplanes at Chicago-O’Hare International Airport on Saturday, a day after the government banned the turboprop from flying in icy weather, and began shifting the planes to service in warm-weather areas.

Ice forming on the wings has been suspected in the Oct. 31 crash of an American Eagle ATR-72 in Roselawn, Ind. The official cause of that crash, which killed all 68 people aboard, is still to be determined.

As a result of the ATR groundings, American Eagle on Tuesday ferried the first of several Saab aircraft to O’Hare to resume service later in the week to major Midwestern cities from Chicago. The airline also announced the permanent shutdown by January of its Raleigh-Durham hub.

The hub has struggled financially in recent months. American Eagle employs 778 people at Raleigh-Durham airport.

Besides the October crash in Indiana, American Eagle flights have been involved in at least three other fatal crashes in the past seven years:

* On June 7, 1992, all five people aboard were killed when an American Eagle plane crashed during a heavy rainstorm into a swamp at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

* On Feb. 19, 1988, all 12 people aboard were killed when an AVAir commuter plane, flying as American Eagle Flight 3378, crashed in a wooded area about a mile from the runway after departing in dense fog from Raleigh-Durham airport.

* On May 8, 1987, the pilot and co-pilot were killed when an American Eagle commuter plane crashed and burned at Mayaguez.

On Jan. 7, a Jetstream 41 crashed near Columbus, Ohio, killing five people. The NTSB ruled that pilot error, unfamiliarity with a new type of plane and inadequate training were the probable causes of that crash.

As of June, American Eagle had 60 of the British Aerospace-built Jetstream Super 31s in its fleet of 279 planes.

The commuter carrier’s smallest plane, the two-engine Jetstream seats 19 people and has a 52-foot wingspan. This type of plane began service at American Eagle in 1989.

Of the four carriers that operate under the American Eagle name, only Wings West, based in Los Angeles, and Flagship Airlines fly Jetstream Super 31s. Raleigh-Durham is one of Flagship’s hubs.