Airline in Reno Crash Temporarily Suspends Operations to Permit Check of Planes

RENO —  Galaxy Airlines’ president said Thursday that his firm was suspending operations so that its fleet can be inspected after the crash of one of its airplanes in which 68 people were killed.

Earlier Thursday, federal investigators checked reports that fluid had been seen leaking from a wing of the turboprop Lockheed Electra on three flights the weekend before its Monday crash south of here.

Airline President Phillip Sheridan, in announcing the temporary grounding of the firm’s three remaining Electras, which are used as cargo planes, said the Electra that crashed had been properly maintained.

“Galaxy Airlines, in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, has agreed to temporarily halt its flight operations so that its Electra aircraft can be inspected,” Sheridan said. “We look forward to a quick return to service.”

One report of the leakage came from George Lamson Jr., 17, of St. Paul, Minn., one of three people who survived the crash of the plane, chartered for a gambling trip.

The other two reports came from pilots, including one who warned the Galaxy pilot that one of his engines was smoking and leaking fluid as the aircraft taxied for takeoff on a flight the day before the crash.

Flight 203 went down as the pilot attempted to return to Reno Cannon Airport shortly after takeoff, skidding onto a highway 2 1/2 miles from the runway and bursting into flames after a series of explosions.

When Lamson boarded the craft for last Friday’s flight from Minneapolis to Reno, “he saw what he described as brake fluid leaking from the left wheel and puddling,” Jim Burnett, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news briefing Wednesday.

“He asked the flight attendant to tell the captain, and the captain said that was expansion from cold weather,” Burnett said. “I have no idea what basis he had for describing it as brake fluid.”

Burnett said a certified commercial pilot told the board he thought the liquid was fuel when he saw the leakage as he boarded the turboprop Sunday at South Lake Tahoe for a Super Bowl flight to Oakland.

“As he was boarding the aircraft, he saw a steady drip of a liquid from under the left wing, and this had left a 2 1/2-foot puddle,” Burnett said. “He thought it had an odor of kerosene or jet fuel.”

Earlier Sunday, Burnett said, an Eastern Airlines pilot in Las Vegas reported seeing smoke and a flow of liquid from the left wing of the plane as it taxied down the runway for takeoff.

The Galaxy pilot said he would check out the engines at the next stop. Burnett said the plane was checked at South Lake Tahoe and the pilot found nothing wrong.

Across town, a coroner’s team of at least 40 people worked at a temporary morgue at the Washoe County Fairgrounds to identify the victims.

Coroner Vern McCarty said positive identification should begin today and could be completed fairly quickly. Two of the three survivors were in critical condition.

George Lamson Sr., 42, of St. Paul remained in critical but stable condition with multiple injuries at St. Marys Hospital in Reno.

Bob Miggins of Plymouth, Minn., had burns over 90% of his body and was in critical condition at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital in Las Vegas.