ST. LOUIS – It’s been nearly three decades since a collision involving a Trans World Airways commercial plane and a smaller Cessna charter plane as both attempted to takeoff from St. Louis.

The crash happened during the late-evening hours of Nov. 22, 1994. Two occupants of the Cessna aircraft died. Officials reported eight injuries but no deaths among the 140 occupants on the TWA plane.

FOX 2 dug through the archives and researched more about this collision after learning of an aircraft collision Tuesday morning along a runway in Japan. Five people died in Tuesday’s collision, though like the St. Louis incident, more than 100 people were evacuated to safety.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the St. Louis crash involved a six-year-old McDonnell Douglas MD-82 model plane bound for Denver as part of a regularly scheduled TWA Flight 427 route. It happened just before the 10 p.m. hour after some takeoff delays.

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On the other end of the collision was a Cessna 4411 Conquest II aircraft that had dropped off a small number of passengers within the 9 p.m. hour and planned to head back to Michigan for a future flight.

A NTSB investigation determined that Cessna’s pilot taxied onto the wrong runway, Runway 30R rather than Runway 31, upon arrival to St. Louis. The investigation also determined that a ground controller used non-standard phrasing and did not properly order the Cessna pilot to repeat back the runway cleared for use.

The investigation determined the TWA plane had accelerated to around 80 miles per hour before its pilot spotted the smaller plane. Within seconds, the pilot swerved left to avoid a square-on hit, though he was unable to avoid a collision.

The Cessna suffered significant damage, while some fuel tanks were punctured on the TWA plane. This prompted leaders to quickly evacuate everyone from the plane, and eight people suffered various injuries while evacuating.

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Officials say some quick-thinking decisions from the pilot and airport crew likely prevented more deaths.

“The pilot did an absolutely superb job in avoiding what could have been a catastrophe,” said former Lambert Airport director Leonard Griggs via the Washington Post.

Since the TWA Flight 427 collision, the NTSB made several safety recommendations. Among those, the NTSB called for pilots to be required to read back runway assignments, controllers to verify readback, and Lambert Airport to install a ground radar.

TWA ceased operations in 2001 and transferred ownership to American Airlines.

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