Crash's legacy is painful, but lessons were learned

Third parties work with families of air disaster victims.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
The widow of a Greenville, Pa., area native killed in the crash of USAir Flight 427 still doesn't think Boeing 737s are safe airplanes.
"I wish there were no 737s flying because I'm not sure that it's not going to happen again," said Alice Grasso of Monroeville, Pa. She was referring to the rudder reversal that the National Transportation Safety Board said was the likely cause of the crash.
She is the widow of Leonard C. Grasso, 41, who died when USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737-300, crashed Sept. 8, 1994, killing all 132 people aboard.
Leonard C. Grasso was formerly of West Salem Township, just outside Greenville, and was a graduate of Reynolds Area High School. He was senior manager of asset management for the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, with headquarters in Monroeville.
"The probable cause is what they said caused it, but it really isn't a definite answer," Alice Grasso said. She noted that changes have been made in pilot training, and a rudder limiter has been placed on 737s since the crash, but she added that she doesn't fly in 737s.
Conclusion of investigation
Concluding what had been the longest aviation accident investigation in its history, the NTSB announced March 24, 1999, that the crash of Flight 427 was likely because of loss of control of the plane because of the movement of the rudder to its maximum limit. The NTSB said the rudder likely went in the direction opposite to what the pilots commanded because its power control unit jammed.
The board said such reversals are extremely rare and noted that the 737 had logged 92 million flight hours since its introduction in 1969, "and in that time carried almost the equivalent of the entire population of the world."
"The NTSB was really good. They listened to us," Grasso said, adding that the board arranged special seating for victims' families at hearings on the crash and held some of the hearings in Pittsburgh. She said it was the first time such hearings were held outside the Washington, D.C., area.
Disaster plan
Two years after the crash, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a bill titled the Federal Family Assistance Plan for Aviation Disasters. It designated the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army as third parties to give information and assistance to families of victims after a crash so the families would no longer have to deal with the airline whose plane crashed.
The 427 Air Disaster Support League, consisting of families and friends of victims, worked with families of victims and survivors of other disasters to form the National Air Disaster Alliance based in Washington, D.C., to lobby for passage of that bill, Grasso said.
Grasso said her daughters, who were 4 and 7 years old at the time of the Flight 427 crash, are in high school. Today is her older daughter's 17th birthday. "It's very tough for her," she said of the proximity of her birthday with the anniversary of her father's death.
The sister of another crash victim said the passage of time reduces, but does not eliminate, the pain of bereavement.
"As time goes on, it does get a little easier, yet you don't forget. It still hurts," said Mary Kulnis of New Castle, Pa, sister of Robert E. Leonhardt of Neshannock, who died in his mid-40s in the Flight 427 crash.
Leonhardt, whose widow, Roseann, lives in Neshannock, worked for Rockwell International and was returning home from a business trip to Chicago on Flight 427.
Painful memories
"We think about him constantly," Kulnis said. She added that her memory of the crash comes back anytime planes or plane accidents are mentioned on TV or in conversation. "It brings it all back to you. It's just like it was yesterday, almost," she said.
Kulnis said she initially suspected a rudder problem had caused the crash, but she holds no grudge against the airlines. "Things happen in life, and you can't be angry about it," she concluded.