All 21 Passengers Die in N.C. Plane Crash

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By PAUL NOWELL, Associated Press Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A commuter plane carrying 21 people crashed into an airport maintenance hangar on takeoff and burst into flames Wednesday, killing everyone aboard, authorities said.

The cause of the crash the deadliest U.S. air accident in nearly 14 months wasn't immediately clear.

The plane, a Beech 1900 twin-engine turboprop, was taking off in clear, windy weather from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport when it hit the corner of a U.S. Airways hangar at full throttle just before 9 a.m., officials said.

Nineteen passengers and two crew members were aboard US Airways Express Flight 5481, an Air Midwest-operated flight headed to Greenville-Spartanburg, said Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) spokeswoman Laura Brown.

The last radio contact with the pilots was clearance for takeoff, she said.

"The plane is so destroyed there's not much to see," said Charlotte police spokesman Keith Bridges. "The debris is in such bad shape."

Airport director Jerry Orr said there were no survivors aboard the plane. Three people on the ground who were thought to have been missing had been accounted for, he said.

The plane veered into the hangar and came down on its roof, witnesses told WCNC-TV. Video from the scene after the crash showed smoldering wreckage and a charred side of the hangar.

The FBI (news - web sites) said there was no immediate indication of terrorism.

Randy Parker was getting out of his vehicle at the airport when he saw the plane losing altitude before the crash.

"It's just a horrible sight," he said. "It's just horrible."

At Greenville-Spartanburg airport, spokeswoman Rosylin Weston said a room had been set up for friends and relatives arriving to pick up passengers from the flight.

Air Midwest, which was operating the flight, is owned by Mesa Airlines.

"We clearly are deeply concerned about this event, about our crews and our passengers," Mesa Chief Executive Jonathan Ornstein said from the company's headquarters in Phoenix. "I can only express our greatest sympathy, my personal sympathy, to all those involved."

Ornstein said the plane was about 8 years old and had 15,000 hours of flight time and 21,000 takeoffs and landings.

Mesa Air operates in the Midwest and East as US Airways Express, in the West and Midwest as America West Express, in Denver as Frontier JetExpress, in New Mexico as Mesa Airlines and in Kansas City with Midwest Airlines.

The crash comes after a year in which there were no deaths aboard a passenger or cargo airliner in the United States. It had been the third time in a decade that a year went by without a fatality on a commercial plane, according to the FAA.

The last was the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in New York on November 12, 2001, in which 265 people died.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=519&e=1&u=/ap/20030108/ap_on_re_us/plane_crash

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It is not surprising that some of these US Domestic Airlines are dropping like "flies out of the sky".

Some of these planes are more then Twenty Years Old, and with so much competition in airfares, the only other way to cut costs is to continue flying old planes, and work "around" the maintenance.

About three to four years ago, a Hawaiin Airline had its upper roof torn off while it was still climbing after taking off - the plane was about Fifteen Years Old.

With frequent short haul flights, the planes are subjected to a few thousand landings and taking off every year.

This will put tremendous stress on the plane's skin to the frequent pressurisation and de-pressurisation during the many daily landing and take off cycles. It is not surprising that an aircraft can perform at least six to eight such cycles in a 24 hour day.

Choose wisely when you fly. "You Get What You Pay".