It was a Friday night in Los Angeles. February 1, 1991. The sun had already dropped behind the Pacific, leaving the runways at LAX bathed in that weird, orange-tinted artificial glow you only see at massive airports. Robin Wascher, an air traffic controller with a solid reputation, was working the local control position. She was busy. Extremely busy. In the chaotic ballet of a major hub at rush hour, a single mistake is usually just a close call. But on this night, a series of tiny, seemingly insignificant hiccups cascaded into a nightmare on Runway 24L.
The collision of USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 wasn't just another plane crash. It was a structural failure of a system that everyone assumed was fail-safe.
You've probably flown into LAX. You know that endless sprawl of lights. Now, imagine being in the cockpit of a Boeing 737-300, arriving from Columbus, Ohio. You're tired. You’re looking forward to hitting the hotel. Captain Ed Waszak and First Officer Robert Powell were doing exactly that. They were cleared to land on 24L. What they didn't know—what they couldn't know—was that a tiny Fairchild Metroliner was sitting right in their path, idling in the dark, waiting for its turn to take off.
The Ghost on the Runway
The problem started with a distraction.
Wascher was managing a heavy workload. She had a Wings West aircraft that had "gone rogue" in a sense—not by breaking rules, but by misplaced paperwork or a switched transponder code that caused a brief moment of confusion. While she was trying to sort out that plane, she cleared SkyWest 5569 to taxi into position and hold on Runway 24L.
Then, she forgot it was there.
It sounds impossible, right? How do you forget a whole airplane? But the Fairchild Metroliner is a small, narrow-body turboprop. From the tower, nearly a mile away, its tail lights blended perfectly into the "sea of blue" taxiway lights and the white runway strobes. It basically became invisible.
When USAir Flight 1493 touched down, it wasn't a smooth landing. The pilots felt a massive jolt. They thought a tire had blown. In reality, they had just crushed a smaller plane under their fuselage like a soda can. The two aircraft, locked together in a hellish embrace of sparking metal and jet fuel, slid off the runway and slammed into an abandoned fire station.
Twelve people on the SkyWest flight died instantly. On the USAir jet, 22 people perished, mostly from smoke inhalation. It was a tragedy of visibility. Or the lack of it.
Why the Tower Couldn't See
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spent a lot of time looking at the equipment in the tower. They found that the ground radar—the tech specifically designed to prevent this—wasn't working. It was broken. Out of service.
Wascher was flying blind, relying purely on her eyes and the "strips" of paper that tracked each flight.
The lighting at LAX was also a mess. If you look at the NTSB reports, they point out that the glare from the terminal lights actually made it harder for controllers to see the runway surface. It’s like trying to see a dark object on a road when the oncoming cars have their high beams on. You’re squinting, hoping your brain fills in the gaps. That night, the gaps stayed empty.
The Human Cost of a "System Error"
We talk about "human error" like it’s a choice. It rarely is. Robin Wascher wasn't incompetent. She was a victim of a system that overloaded her brain and gave her zero technological backup. When she realized what happened, the transcript from the tower is heartbreaking. She spent those final minutes trying to figure out where the SkyWest plane had gone, not realizing it was currently trapped under the burning wreckage of the 737 she had just cleared to land.
The NTSB eventually blamed the FAA.
They argued that the Los Angeles tower was understaffed and the procedures for "position and hold" were inherently dangerous. "Position and hold" (now called "Line Up and Wait") is when a controller puts a plane on the runway while another one is still landing or taking off elsewhere. It saves time. It keeps the "slots" moving. But it creates a single point of failure. If the controller forgets that plane is sitting there, the runway is no longer clear.
The Survival Factor
If you were sitting in the back of USAir Flight 1493, your survival depended almost entirely on which exit you chose.
The fire started on the left side. The plane had come to a rest against a building, which blocked some of the exits. People panicked. It’s a natural reaction when the cabin fills with thick, black cyanide-laced smoke. The 737’s over-wing exits were a bottleneck.
This crash actually changed how we design airplane interiors.
- Floor lighting: Those glowing strips that lead you to the exit? You can thank the lessons from 1493 for those.
- Fire retardant materials: The seats and carpets are now designed to smolder rather than ignite instantly.
- Clearer Exit Rows: We have much stricter rules about who sits in the exit row and how much space is around those doors.
What Most People Get Wrong About LAX
A lot of folks think the planes collided in the air. They didn't. This was a "runway incursion." It’s actually one of the most common "near-miss" scenarios in modern aviation.
The crazy thing? Even today, with all our tech, we still have runway incursions. Just look at the news from the last couple of years. There have been several heart-stopping moments at JFK and Austin where planes almost hit each other on the ground. The ghost of USAir Flight 1493 is still very much in the room every time a controller handles a heavy traffic load.
Technical Failures That Night
- Ground Radar (ASDE): The Airport Surface Detection Equipment was inoperable. If it had been working, a red light would have flashed on Wascher’s screen.
- The "Strips": The physical paper strips were mismanaged due to the distraction of the Wings West flight.
- The Fairchild’s Profile: The Metroliner was so small its lights were physically obscured by the 737’s nose as it approached.
The investigation found that the FAA knew the ground radar at LAX was unreliable. They knew the tower was cramped. They knew the lighting was bad. But they didn't act until bodies were being pulled from a burned-out fire station.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Traveler
It feels weird to say there are "tips" for surviving a plane crash, but aviation safety experts have literally built a career out of the data from USAir Flight 1493. If you want to take your safety into your own hands, here’s what the pros do:
Count the rows. When you sit down, physically touch the seats between you and the nearest exit. If the cabin fills with smoke, you won't be able to see. You need to know that the exit is exactly seven seat-backs away.
Leave the bags. People on Flight 1493 died because others tried to grab their luggage from the overhead bins. Smoke inhalation kills in seconds. A laptop isn't worth your lungs.
Stay alert during taxi. Most people zone out as soon as the plane touches the ground. But the runway is actually one of the most dangerous places. Keep your shoes on and your seatbelt buckled until you are at the gate.
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Understand "Line Up and Wait." If you hear the pilot say they are "lining up and waiting" on the runway, just be aware that the plane is in a vulnerable position. It’s a standard procedure, but it requires 100% focus from the flight crew to monitor the radio for any conflicting clearances.
The legacy of USAir Flight 1493 is written in the safety briefing you usually ignore. Every time you see those floor lights or notice the extra legroom in an exit row, you're seeing the result of the lessons learned on that tragic night in 1991. The "system" is much better now, but it’s still run by humans. And humans, as Robin Wascher tragically proved, can only process so much at once.
To dive deeper into the technical changes made after this incident, you can review the formal NTSB Accident Report AAR-91/08. It’s a dry read, but it’s the definitive account of how one of the busiest airports in the world failed its passengers. You can also look into the implementation of ASDE-X, the high-resolution ground radar that finally fixed the "blind spot" issues that led to this collision. Operating with better situational awareness is the only way to ensure the orange lights of LAX never oversee a night like that again.