Controller's Past Cited In L.A. Crash -- Counseling Urged After Parents' Plane Vanished

LOS ANGELES - An air-traffic controller who put a jet and a commuter plane on the same Los Angeles runway, causing a fatal crash, was relieved of duty as an Air Force controller 14 years ago and urged to seek psychiatric help, a federal report says.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report released yesterday also disclosed that controller Robin Lee Wascher had made similar errors during an evaluation shortly before the Feb. 1 crash that killed 34 people.

Wascher was urged to get psychiatric help shortly after her parents' plane disappeared after takeoff in 1977, the report said.

The report, made public as the NTSB opened hearings into the collision at Los Angeles International Airport, also said USAir Capt. Colin Shaw, 48, had traces of phenobarbital in his blood when he died in the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration prohibits use of the sedative by a pilot before flying.

Shaw was not at the controls when the collision occurred; co-pilot David Kelley was flying the plane. FAA spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said investigators would determine whether the drug had a role in the accident.

An audio tape the FAA released in March showed that the collision occurred when Wascher directed the USAir Boeing 737 to land on a runway where she had earlier told a Skywest commuter plane to wait for clearance to take off. The FAA gave no explanation of what caused the error.

Kelley testified at the NTSB hearing today that he did not see the commuter plane on the airport runway until just before his jet smashed onto it. He also said Shaw had to ask controllers twice for landing clearance. They then were asked to switch runways, he said.

Wascher, 39, has worked for the FAA as an air-traffic control specialist since 1982. She was an Air Force controller in Mississippi when her parents' plane disappeared in 1977. The plane was never found.

A month later, Wascher told an Air Force flight surgeon that her parents' death left her "incapable of controlling traffic safely," the report said.

Wascher was relieved of duty and told to visit a mental-health clinic. The day after her examination, she received an honorable discharge. The report did not give details of Wascher's discharge and medical record, and she has refused to comment.

The report, however, contained the following account of her work with the FAA:

Wascher enrolled in the FAA academy in 1982 as one of the replacements hired after striking controllers were fired.

The FAA did not have her military records when she was hired. When the agency received them, she was asked to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. A psychiatrist found no evidence that she was unfit.

Wascher received a satisfactory overall report on her most recent evaluation, but an examiner reported some deficiencies.

The reviewer said her "awareness was not maintained" on one plane on a runway while another was coming in to land and the incoming plane aborted its landing attempt.

Colleagues have said the lapse was not typical of Wascher, and investigators have not suggested that any incidents from her past contributed to February's accident.

Another of the investigative reports showed that the airport's 20-year-old ground radar system, which was malfunctioning at the time of the crash and might have helped Wascher see that a plane was sitting on the runway, had a history of service problems dating back at least 10 years.