My Question for USAirways

What is it about USAir (to me, they are still USAir and, sometimes, Allegheny), LaGuardia Airport, and the bodies of water around this city?

This is the third -- yes, THIRD -- plane that USAir has put into the drink while I've been in this city. That's 3 in 20 years.

On a rainy September night in 1989 there was US Air Flight 5050, which at takeoff had a mistrimmed rudder and apparent CRM (that's Cockpit Resource Management for you non-plane crash junkies) issues. These are things that fall under the catchall term "Pilot Error." Like Flight 1549, 5050 was also bound for Charlotte. It made it as far as the approach light stanchions at the end of the runway and landed in the East River in a couple of big pieces, killing two. The NTSB cryptically describes the plane in its report as "Aircraft Condition: Destroyed." I'll say:



Then there was US Air Flight 405, an F28 that also crashed on takeoff out of LaGarbage, killing 27. This was was caused by improper de-icing coupled with the fact that the crew did not do a visual inspection of the aircraft. The plane stalled on takeoff and fell out of the sky, skidding off the runway into Flushing Bay. I have a vague memory of reading in one of the local papers that they found one of the passengers wandering around in Queens, soaking wet and smelling of kerosene (aka Jet A), and completely disoriented. Sorry for this terrible photo, it's the only one I could find on the web:



So now you know my secret fetish and ghoulish fascination: Plane crashes.