USAir Flight 1493 - Fatalities and Injuries

Fatalities and Injuries

The 34 dead included all 12 people (10 passengers and 2 crew – Captain Andrew J. Lucas and First Officer Frank C. Prentice III) on SkyWest 5569 and 22 of the 89 aboard the USAir 1493 (20 passengers and 2 crew members – Captain Collin Shaw and Flight Attendant Deanna Betha-Kearney). Captain Shaw was killed when the nose of the aircraft impacted the abandoned fire station, crushing the section of the cockpit where his seat was located. Of the remaining passengers and crew aboard USAir 1493, two crew members and 11 passengers sustained serious injuries, 2 crew members and 15 passengers sustained minor injuries and 37 passengers received no injuries. Billionaire businessman David H. Koch was among the survivors.

The majority of fatalities aboard USAir 1493 occurred to those seated in the front of the plane, where the post crash fire originated in the forward cargo hold, fed by a combination of fuel from the wreckage of SkyWest 5569 and gaseous oxygen from the 737's damaged crew oxygen system. Everyone seated in row 6 or forward was either killed or sustained major injuries, while everyone aft of row 17 escaped, some with minor injuries. Only 2 passengers and one crew member managed to escape from the forward service (R1) door, while the main cabin (L1) door was inoperable due to damage. Only two passengers used the left over wing exit before the fire became too intense outside the aircraft. The majority of the survivors exited via the right over wing exit, with the rest of the surviving cabin occupants escaping through the rear service (R2) door. The rear passenger (L2) door was briefly opened during the course of the accident, but was quickly closed due to the spreading fire on that side of the aircraft. Multiple issues slowed the evacuation from the right over wing door including a passenger seated in the exit row who could not open the door, a brief scuffle between two men at the exit, and the seat back of the exit window seat being folded forward, partially obstructing the exit.

From the location of the bodies, only two victims on USAir 1493 were found in their seats, while authorities believe that 17 had unbuckled their seat belts and died from smoke inhalation while making their way to the exits. According to James Burnett, who headed the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation team, "I can't think of a recent accident where this many people have been up and out of their seats and didn't make it out." The captain was one of the few people who died of blunt force trauma, a blow to the head when the bulkhead collapsed as the aircraft collided with the firehouse. The first officer was rescued through the cockpit windows by some of the first fire fighters to arrive on the accident scene.

One person who evacuated USAir 1493 died from thermal burns a few days after the accident. One of the 13 seriously injured passengers succumbed to multiple traumatic injuries 31 days after the crash – not listed as a USAir 1493 fatality due to language in the Code of Federal Regulations (49CFR830.2) that defines a fatality as taking place within 30 days of the accident.

Among the dead on SkyWest 5569 were Skywest's Palmdale station manager as well as an FAA Air Traffic controller who worked in Palmdale.