Cause of N.Y. Jet Crash Still a Mystery : Passengers Pulled From River After Jet Skids Off Runway; 2 Die

NEW YORK —  Aviation officials questioned crew members and recovered flight recorders today in an effort to learn why a USAir jet carrying 63 people aborted takeoff and skidded into the East River, killing two passengers.

About 10 people clinging to driftwood were rescued, while others huddled on the wing of the 9-month-old Boeing 737-400 that broke apart late Wednesday at the water’s edge at LaGuardia Airport.

“We just grabbed on to a big piece of wood and held on for dear life,” said Tom Newberry, 27, of New York City.

This morning, the plane’s data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered, said Port Authority spokesman Mark Marchese. Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board arrived and began talking to the crew.

“Something happened and he (the pilot) put on the brakes. The plane took a dip and the next thing I knew all hell broke loose,” said passenger Larry Martin of New York City, who huddled in blankets with his wife, Valerie.

“People were on top of each other. People were screaming. There was the smell of gas. Everyone was saying, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’ ” he said. The Martins got out, and held fast to driftwood until a police boat plucked them from the water.

Officials said two women who had seats in the rear of the plane near where the fuselage snapped were killed. They were identified by relatives as Betty Brogan, 36, a nurse in Johnson City, Tenn., and her mother-in-law, Alice Brogan, of Roanoke, Va.

Forty-five people were taken to hospitals. Two were reported in serious condition and a third was in stable condition after a heart attack.

The Coast Guard had said overnight that as many as six people were missing, and divers were sent to look for them. But an airline spokeswoman, Susan Young, said all 57 passengers and six crew members were accounted for as of 8 a.m.

Flight 5050, bound for Charlotte, N.C., originally scheduled for departure at 7:27 p.m., was delayed about four hours by heavy rain. But officials said weather was not a factor in the crash.

The plane split into three pieces, its nose remaining above water on a pier that holds runway approach lights. The other pieces were partly submerged in 25- to 40-foot-deep water, just beyond a runway that extended onto pylons 10 feet above the water. A crane raised the wreckage at dawn.

‘God Held That Up’

“What held it up was a lighting bridge,” Mayor Edward I. Koch said of the front section. “The back section, God held that up.”

Stephen Berger, executive director of the Port Authority, which operates the airport, said several people walked away from the crash, and at least one took a taxi home.

The airport reopened this morning after being closed for six hours.

The plane was delivered new to USAir in January and had no history of mechanical problems, said Nancy Vaughan, another USAir spokeswoman.