By Don Phillips

NEW YORK, MARCH 25 -- The copilot who survived the crash of USAir Flight 405 Sunday night told investigators today he repeatedly checked one of the aircraft's wings for ice as it taxied to the runway, but saw none. He also said the captain checked the other wing before takeoff.

First Officer John J. Rachuba, recovering from injuries in a hospital, was interviewed for 3 hours 45 minutes by investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board who are trying to determine why the twin-jet F-28 4000 yawed to the left as it was taking off from La Guardia Airport and crashed into Flushing Bay. Twenty-seven people aboard the flight were killed, including Capt. Wallace J. Majure II, and 24 survived.

Rachuba told a dramatic story of a takeoff that seemed normal and smooth until liftoff when he felt a "pronounced buffet," or vibration, and the aircraft headed left toward the water. He and Majure then fought to keep the plane on land.

"He said they were trying to find a safe place to crash at that point," said board member John Lauber, in charge of the investigation.

Lauber said Rachuba remembered saying only, "Stay with it, Wally," as the two experienced pilots struggled to make the aircraft fly. But, Lauber said, "he felt it was apparent to both of them they weren't going to fly."

The plane had apparently reached sufficient air speed for a normal takeoff. Lauber said the flight data recorder shows the plane had accelerated to 134 knots. The takeoff speed for the aircraft was 129 knots, he said.

The possibility of icing is one of the many areas the board is investigating, particularly because the wet snowy conditions that existed at the time of the crash were ideal for ice formation. Even a small amount of ice on wings can disrupt airflow and destroy a wing's lift. The F-28's wing, with no leading edge devices that move forward to increase lift, is similar to the DC-9-10's wing, which the board has said is particularly sensitive to ice.

The aircraft had been de-iced twice at the gate, but about 35 minutes elapsed between the last de-icing and takeoff. Investigators said it is too early to know whether that time gap was significant.

Lauber said Rachuba "described himself as being very appreciative of ice" because much of his early flying was done in Pennsylvania and other cold climates. Lauber said a flight crew can see the entire wingspans of an F-28 from the plane's cockpit. At night, the wings are lighted by an "ice light," and the crew is further aided by a black stripe on the wing designed to make any ice glisten in the strong beam of the ice light.

Surviving passengers of Flight 405 have confirmed the ice light was on Sunday night, Lauber said. He also said Rachuba recalled looking back at the black stripe on the right wing many times, perhaps 10 times or more, as the plane taxied to the runway. Rachuba spoke of Majure also looking back at the left wing, Lauber said.

According to Lauber, as the plane prepared to move onto the runway, Rachuba said he told Majure: "It looks good to me. The black stripe is clear."

The surviving flight attendant, Debra Taylor, told board investigators today that flight attendant Janice King, who was killed, had gone to the cockpit during taxi to ask about the possibility of ice on the wings on behalf of a nervous passenger. She returned to report that "everything was OK, all was normal," according to Lauber.

The significance of the buffet reported by Rachuba is unclear. However, Lauber said it would be consistent with a disruption of airflow over a wing. Lauber adamantly refused to draw any conclusions, but aviation professionals say ice can disrupt airflow.

Rachuba does not know how he got out of the cockpit, according to Lauber.

Taylor said that after the crash, she "snaked her way out of the aircraft" and was pulled to shore by a surviving passenger who had helped several others. "Apparently this individual put in very great effort," Lauber said of the unidentified passenger.