USAir Flight 1493 was a scheduled commercial flight that was involved in an accident at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on February 1, 1991, colliding with SkyWest Airlines Flight 5569. Both planes caught fire after the impact and 35 of their occupants died, and another 29 were injured, thirteen of them seriously.
Investigation
The conclusions of the accident investigation carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), established several causes for the accident.
The fact that the ground radar was out of service on the day of the incident was one such root cause, as it would otherwise have been able to detect the presence of the SkyWest aircraft on the runway in time to alert the incoming US Airways flight. Other decisive factors were the lack of synchronicity between the flight progress tabs available to the controllers and the actual position of the aircraft on the airport runways and taxiways, which made the flight aircraft 5569 received incorrect instructions due to its controller's incorrect perception of its location. The poor night lighting of the runways and the glare problems that this lighting caused in the operators of the airport control tower, reducing their ability to see small aircraft during their maneuvers on the taxiways, was another of the determining factors of the Sinister.
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the airport administration for not having enough staff to handle landings and takeoffs, especially during night operations.