On September 8 1994 The Unthinkable Happened In Pittsburgh

Some moments live with us forever. Moments that bring a community, a nation, together in sorrow. Most people who lived in Pittsburgh in the early 1990s likely remember exactly where they were when the local media broke into the evening television programming, sometime after 7 p.m. on September 8, 1994. The unthinkable happened: USAir Flight 427 crashed in Hopewell Township, killing all 132 aboard.

Wikimedia Commons/Aero Icarus At 5 p.m. on September 8, 1994, USAir Flight 427 took off from Chicago O’Hare Airport en route to Pittsburgh with 132 people aboard the Boeing 737.

Flickr/jimmy thomas Only six miles from Pittsburgh International Airport, tragedy struck. Pilot Peter Germano and co-pilot Charles B. Emmett III frantically declared a traffic emergency before the plane plummeted 6,000 feet from the sky in only 23 seconds.

Flickr/Chris Tengi All 132 aboard perished. The airplane, witnesses state, was unrecognizable and recovery teams had to wear special gear to protect themselves from the biological hazards at the crash site.

Wikimedia Commons/Aero Icarus

At 5 p.m. on September 8, 1994, USAir Flight 427 took off from Chicago O’Hare Airport en route to Pittsburgh with 132 people aboard the Boeing 737.

Flickr/jimmy thomas

Only six miles from Pittsburgh International Airport, tragedy struck. Pilot Peter Germano and co-pilot Charles B. Emmett III frantically declared a traffic emergency before the plane plummeted 6,000 feet from the sky in only 23 seconds.

Flickr/Chris Tengi

All 132 aboard perished. The airplane, witnesses state, was unrecognizable and recovery teams had to wear special gear to protect themselves from the biological hazards at the crash site.

U.S. Flight 427 would dominate headlines for weeks as family and friends of the crash victims, as well as the community of Pittsburgh, mourned. Family members began the healing process together, creating the Flight 427 Air Disaster Support League after being stonewalled when asking for information about the crash and after struggling to claim their family member’s personal belongings. The support group held its final formal gathering in 2014, the 20th anniversary of the crash.

The crash set off the longest investigation in aviation history to determine what had caused the plane’s catastrophic failure. Five years after the crash of Flight 427, in 1999, the National Transportation Safety Board revealed its findings. The rudder had jammed. As a result, the NTSB recommended redesigning the rudder and adding a backup system to give pilots a chance at recovery during a rudder jam. Click play above to see the FAA’s USAir 427 Trial Graphics that illustrates what brought Flight 427 down.

One of the lasting legacies of the victims, and of those they left behind, is the way families of plane crash victims are treated after such a tragedy. President Bill Clinton signed the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act into law in 1996. As a result, the National Transportation Safety Board created an office to act as advocates for victims and their families after an air disaster. Click play above to view WTAE’s 20th anniversary coverage of the crash.

Flickr/Daniel X. O’Nell

Flickr/Daniel X. O’Nell

Flickr/Daniel X. O’Nell

Flickr/Daniel X. O’Nell A memorial to USAir Flight 427 was also installed at Sewickley Cemetery.

Today, on September 8, 2016, we remember the evening 22 years ago when the unthinkable happened in Pittsburgh.

Flickr/Daniel X. O’Nell

A memorial to USAir Flight 427 was also installed at Sewickley Cemetery.

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