SAFETY
The taxiway for commercial jets using Blue Grass Airport's main runway was altered a week before Comair Flight 5191 took the wrong runway and crashed here, killing all but one of the 50 people aboard, the airport's director said Monday.
Both the old and new taxiways cross over the shorter general aviation runway where the commuter jet tried to take off Sunday, the airport's executive director, Michael Gobb, told The Associated Press.
The repaving was completed late on the previous Sunday, Gobb said. It was not clear if the Comair pilots aboard Flight 5191 had been there since the change. Comair operates that regular 6 a.m. weekend flight to Atlanta from Lexington, but another airline flies that commuter route during the week.
Charlie Monette, president of Aero- Tech, a flight school based at the airport, said: "It's slightly different than it used to be. Could there have been some confusion associated with that? That's certainly a possibility."
Conversations between those in the plane's cockpit and the person on duty in the control tower before dawn Sunday mentioned only the airport's main commercial strip, Runway 22, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash.
Somehow, the commuter jet ended up on the airport's other runway, Runway 26, which has a cracked surface. It is meant for small planes and is much too short for Comair's twin-engine jet.
The crash that followed was the worst U.S. plane disaster since 2001.
The pilots tried to lift off, but the plane clipped trees, then quickly crashed in a field and burst into flames, killing everyone aboard except the co- pilot, who was pulled from the cockpit and is in critical condition. He was identified as James Polehinke, and officials did not say whether he had been able to speak with investigators about the crash.
An initial examination of the flight data recorders indicated that the pilots of the jet opted on Sunday for a runway measuring 3,500 feet, or more than 1,000 meters, instead of a runway of more than twice that length that is perpendicular to the shorter runway and is used most by commercial jets at Blue Grass Airport.
Bombardier, the Canadian company that built the airplane, and aviation officials differed on whether the plane was a CRJ-100 or a CRJ-200. A fully loaded plane of either type, depending on wind and other conditions, typically requires a runway at least 5,000 feet to take off, according to aviation officials.
The aircraft had taken off in hazy weather only moments before the crash. It was headed 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 that they saw smoke and fire coming from the plane shortly before the crash. Bornhorst would not speculate on the cause of the accident. Officials, however, were quick to rule out a terrorist act as the cause.
LEXINGTON, Kentucky The taxiway for commercial jets using Blue Grass Airport's main runway was altered a week before Comair Flight 5191 took the wrong runway and crashed here, killing all but one of the 50 people aboard, the airport's director said Monday.
Both the old and new taxiways cross over the shorter general aviation runway where the commuter jet tried to take off Sunday, the airport's executive director, Michael Gobb, told The Associated Press.
The repaving was completed late on the previous Sunday, Gobb said. It was not clear if the Comair pilots aboard Flight 5191 had been there since the change. Comair operates that regular 6 a.m. weekend flight to Atlanta from Lexington, but another airline flies that commuter route during the week.
Charlie Monette, president of Aero- Tech, a flight school based at the airport, said: "It's slightly different than it used to be. Could there have been some confusion associated with that? That's certainly a possibility."
Conversations between those in the plane's cockpit and the person on duty in the control tower before dawn Sunday mentioned only the airport's main commercial strip, Runway 22, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash.
Somehow, the commuter jet ended up on the airport's other runway, Runway 26, which has a cracked surface. It is meant for small planes and is much too short for Comair's twin-engine jet.
The crash that followed was the worst U.S. plane disaster since 2001.
The pilots tried to lift off, but the plane clipped trees, then quickly crashed in a field and burst into flames, killing everyone aboard except the co- pilot, who was pulled from the cockpit and is in critical condition. He was identified as James Polehinke, and officials did not say whether he had been able to speak with investigators about the crash.
An initial examination of the flight data recorders indicated that the pilots of the jet opted on Sunday for a runway measuring 3,500 feet, or more than 1,000 meters, instead of a runway of more than twice that length that is perpendicular to the shorter runway and is used most by commercial jets at Blue Grass Airport.
Bombardier, the Canadian company that built the airplane, and aviation officials differed on whether the plane was a CRJ-100 or a CRJ-200. A fully loaded plane of either type, depending on wind and other conditions, typically requires a runway at least 5,000 feet to take off, according to aviation officials.
The aircraft had taken off in hazy weather only moments before the crash. It was headed 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 that they saw smoke and fire coming from the plane shortly before the crash. Bornhorst would not speculate on the cause of the accident. Officials, however, were quick to rule out a terrorist act as the cause.
FAA Control tower policy was violated in the Lexington crash
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration violated a federal policy by having only one air traffic controller on duty in Lexington at the time of the Comair jet crash that killed all 49 of 50 people aboard.
Since Nov. 16, 2005, the FAA has required two controllers in all towers on all shifts, agency spokeswoman Laura Brown said Tuesday.
Now two controllers will be required at Blue Grass Airport, she said.
"When air traffic management learned following this accident that this policy had not been strictly followed at Lexington, air traffic control tower, they directed the facility manager to ensure that a minimum of two controllers are on duty at all times — one for radar operations and one for surface operations," Brown told The Courier-Journal.
She declined to say whether the staffing shortage had anything to do with Sunday’s crash.
Andrew Cantwell, outgoing vice president for the southern region of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the violation reflects the union’s concern that control towers are not adequately staffed.
"It’s pretty sad that the FAA can’t even comply with their own requirements," Cantwell said. "Unfortunately, it takes an accident to bring attention to this issue."
A Nov. 16 document from the Lexington tower’s air traffic manager, obtained by The Courier-Journal, states that “our staffing rarely allows for a second controller to be assigned to the midshift,” or the midnight shift.
The manager wrote that the FAA was "requiring that facilities separate the radar function from the tower function."
The radar function involves controlling planes departing and approaching the airport out to about 40 miles from the tower.
The tower function focuses on controlling ground traffic at the airport, including airport vehicles, providing clearances to aircraft to taxi, and giving updated weather data to flight crews.
Mike Overly, editor of AVSIG.com, an on-line aviation safety forum hosted by the Aviation Safety Institute, a non-profit research organization based in Worthington, Ohio, said tower staffing may be a factor in the accident, but not the only one.
Overly agreed that two controllers makes operations safer.
"Two sets of eyes are better than one set," he said. "A lot of guys have their heads down on their computers ... Having somebody who can look out the window is good."
