
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990                   TAG: 9006200314
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PILOTS FACED FATAL CRASH CALMLY, TAPES SHOW

An eerie calm marked the conversations between the copilot and air-traffic controllers before a Colombian jetliner ran out of fuel and crashed last January in New York, according to tapes played Tuesday by federal regulators.

Avianca Flight 52 plowed into a hillside in suburban Cove Neck, Long Island, on Jan. 25, killing 73 of 158 aboard, including the three-man cockpit crew.

On the tapes, the copilot sounded almost blase as he told air-traffic controllers the plane was running low on fuel. "Climb and maintain 3,000 and, uh, we're running out of fuel, sir," he told a controller after the plane missed its first approach to Kennedy in heavy fog and wind.

Nor was there a trace of panic when, minutes later, the Avianca copilot radioed: "Avianca zero-five-two, we just, ah, lost two engines and we need priority, please." - Associated Press

by CNB