PagCal wrote:

Runway accidents are common. If they had put traffic lights on
runways, as suggested at least 10 years ago, these 49 people would not
have died.

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August 28, 2006
49 Die in Crash as Jet Takes Off From Wrong Runway
By IAN URBINA and AMANDA VAN BENSCHOTEN

LEXINGTON, Ky., Aug. 27 — A Comair jet that mistakenly took off on a
short runway crashed into a woody field here on Sunday, killing all
but one of the 50 people aboard, federal aviation officials said.

An initial examination of the flight recorders, or so-called black
boxes, indicated that the pilots of the plane, a Bombardier Canadair
jet, used a 3,500-foot runway at the Blue Grass Airport, much shorter
than is typically required for a fully loaded aircraft of that type. A
runway twice that length that is perpendicular to the shorter runway
is used mostly by commercial jets at the airport.

The builder of the airplane and federal aviation officials differed on
whether the plane was a CRJ-100 or a CRJ-200. A plane of either type,
depending on wind and other conditions, typically requires a runway at
least 5,000 feet long to take off, aviation officials say.

The crash was one of the worst domestic airline accidents in recent
years.

The sole survivor was identified as James M. Polehinke, the co-pilot.
Mr. Polehinke was taken to the University of Kentucky Chandler
Hospital and was in critical condition Sunday afternoon, said Jay
Blanton, a spokesman for the hospital. Officials did not say whether
Mr. Polehinke had been able to speak with investigators about the crash.

People involved in the investigation said the lights might have been
illuminated on the shorter runway, which the plane would have
approached first, even though an airport notice had told pilots that
the lights were off.

Such a discrepancy could have caused some confusion in the cockpit if
the pilots were focused on looking for a lighted runway.

Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board,
said she could not comment on whether the lights on the short runway
had been on.

The crash was a blow to Comair’s parent company, Delta Air Lines. The
company filed for bankruptcy last September and had been hoping to
emerge from Chapter 11 by next summer.

Comair, based in Cincinnati, has been battling with its 970 flight
attendants over concessions the company is seeking as part of its
restructuring. Airline officials have said the company needs more than
$7 million a year in concessions as part of a package of cuts from
flight attendants, pilots and mechanics. A federal judge ruled last
month that Comair could throw out the flight attendants’ contract.

Comair Flight 5191, a regional service with 47 passengers and 3 crew
members aboard, crashed about 6:05 a.m., about a half-mile from Blue
Grass Airport. It had taken off in hazy weather only moments before,
en route to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, on a
flight that was scheduled for just over an hour, said Comair’s
president, Don Bornhorst.

Witnesses on the ground said they saw smoke and fire coming from the
plane shortly before the crash. Mr. Bornhorst would not speculate on
the cause of the accident. Officials, however, were quick to rule out
a terrorist act as the cause.

The plane was largely intact after smashing into the field, but there
was a fire after the impact, the police said at a news conference.

The plane appeared to have struck an eight-foot metal fence that
separated the shorter runway from a farm and then clipped treetops as
it struggled to gain altitude, some of the first people to reach the
crash site said.

“They must have almost cleared the fence, because only the top of it
was missing, and then the tips of some trees further out were also
burnt off,” said Nick Bentley, who owns the 115-acre farm where the
plane crashed.

Local emergency workers found the plane’s voice and data recorders.
They were flown to Washington and will be examined in the coming days,
officials said.

Mr. Bentley said he was awakened not long after 6 a.m. by a phone call
from a friend about the crash. He went to inspect the crash site and
damaged fence, he said. “This is usually a very safe airport, so I’m
shocked,” he added.

The crash ends a period in which airline accidents have been extremely
infrequent. Only one crash since the hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001,
involved a large jet: American Airlines Flight 587, which plunged into
a residential neighborhood in Queens on Nov. 12, 2001, killing 265
people. Since then, there have been three major plane crashes, all
turbo props, which are planes whose propellers are driven by a jet
engine. Sunday’s crash was the first since the one in November 2001 to
involve a jet airplane that did not have propellers.

The small regional jets tend to have good equipment because most of
the aircraft is often new. But they are often flown by less
experienced crews because most pilots get their first jobs with small
airlines before graduating to jobs with larger carriers.

Mr. Bornhorst said the jet was purchased in January 2001 and was
up-to-date in routine maintenance, with its last maintenance on Saturday.

The pilot, Capt. Jeffrey Clay, began work with Comair in 1999 and was
promoted two years ago to captain, Mr. Bornhorst said. The co-pilot,
Mr. Polehinke, has worked for Comair since 2002.

“We’re just hoping and praying right now,” said Eileen Jelley, whose
daughter is married to Mr. Polehinke’s brother. “If you have any spare
prayers, offer them up because he’s a good guy.”

A temporary morgue was set up at the scene, and the bodies will be
taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Frankfort, police
officials said.

Michael Gobb, executive director of the airport, said that if a
positive note could come from such a tragedy, it would be in the
heroic efforts of the two airport firefighters, Jon Sallee and James
Maupin, and the Lexington police officer, Brian Gared, who rescued Mr.
Polehinke.

“The aircraft was still very much on fire,” Mr. Gobb said, “but they
went in to get the rescued individual. It was truly remarkable what
those rescue workers did.”

Rescue officials set up an information area at Campbell House, a hotel
about four miles from the airport, for family and friends of the victims.

Richard F. Healing, a former member of the National Transportation
Safety Board, said, “You would think it would be difficult” to mistake
one runway for another. Mr. Healing, now a safety consultant, noted
that there had been reports of haze, but he said the runways were
prominently marked.

Mistaking a runway is much more common on landing than on departure,
he said, adding that the cockpit voice recorder should reveal if there
was some distraction. The crew might have been fatigued, he said.

Mr. Healing said that regardless of the minimum distance required, a
pilot who thought he was on a 7,000-foot runway might not start his
takeoff from the very beginning of the runway or use full power. So
even if the shorter runway was theoretically long enough, in practice
it might still have been insufficient.

At the Atlanta airport, chaplains waited to console family members of
those killed in the crash. But virtually no one came. “We even met
another flight coming in from Lexington, and there wasn’t anyone who
knew anyone on Flight 5191 or who was coming here to meet someone,”
said the Rev. Gary Padgett, a volunteer chaplain at the airport.

The Lexington airport offered a tenser scene. “Everyone on our flight
had their cellphones out, calling,” said Diane Boyer, of Versailles, a
Lexington suburb, as she left a flight from Atlanta. Ms. Boyer said
she had heard about the crash before leaving that morning, but had
decided to fly because she did not want to wait to return to her
family. In the background, officials periodically announced that the
security threat level had been raised to orange.

“Our children were worried about us,” Ms. Boyer said, “and we’re just
praying and hoping we didn’t know anyone on that flight.”

The Lexington airport reopened to air traffic at 9 a.m., but nearby
roads were blocked by police checkpoints.

Sitting in the Delta terminal in Lexington, Hayley O’Connor, 22, was
struggling to decide whether to board her flight to Atlanta. “I’m
really scared,” Ms. O’Connor said, crying. “Earlier I had to stop
myself just thinking what it must have been like on the plane.”

Ian Urbina reported from Washington for this article, and Amanda Van
Benschoten from Lexington. Contributing reporting were Brenda Goodman
from Atlanta, Sahar Habibi from New York, Stacy L. Neitzel and Matthew
L. Wald from Lexington.

What was the air traffic controller doing jerking off? It's the air
traffic controllers responsibility to keep the aircraft visual and make
sure it clears the runway.

The pilot may have taken a wrong turn but the controller should have
warned him way before he took off

The incident in Kentucky was a duel ***** up. Pilot and FAA controller