Commuter plane crashes into hangar on take-off, killing passengers and crew

A commuter plane crashed into an airport maintenance hangar on take-off yesterday and burst into flames, killing all 19 passengers and two crew on board. The cause of the crash – the worst American air accident in nearly 14 months – was not immediately clear.

The plane, a Beech 1900 twin-engine turboprop, was taking off in clear, windy weather from Charlotte/Douglas International airport in North Carolina when it hit the corner of a US Airways hangar at full throttle just before 9am local time. The US Airways Express Flight 5481, operated by Air Midwest, was heading for Greenville-Spartanburg airport in South Carolina.

The last radio contact with the pilots was clearance for take-off, said Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The airport director, Jerry Orr, said there were no survivors. Three people on the ground who were thought to have been missing had been accounted for, he said. The FBI said there was no immediate indication of terrorism.

The plane veered into the hangar and came down on its roof, witnesses said. Randy Parker was getting out of his car at the airport when he saw the plane losing altitude before the crash. "It's just a horrible sight," he said.

At Greenville-Spartanburg airport, a room was set aside for counselling friends and relatives arriving to pick up passengers from the flight.

Jonathan Ornstein, chief executive of Mesa Airlines, which owns Air Midwest, said the plane was about eight years old and had completed 15,000 hours of flight time and 21,000 take-offs and landings.(AP)