Kentucky Air Crash

Full story here

One person is said to have survived!

Michael ( Webdes03) works for Comair so maybe he will have more info as and when it comes in.

Saw this as I logged on to the internet and well, I don't know what to say. My thoughts are with the families of those onboard[:#]

VS.

Looking like the Comair operated CRJ-100 took off from the short 22 runway instead of the 26 runway and stalled attempting to climb out.

FO is current survivor.

John

[Bazz]

FO was pulled from the cockpit wreckage by the early responders, is in critical but not life theatening condition. Both FDR and CVR have been recovered. All others now confirmed dead - officials appealing for dental records suggesting intensity of post crash fire was very severe.

Our thoughts and prayers for the FO and family, loved ones and co-workers of all who perished.

Barry

The mood at Comair was pretty grim yesterday- with our company president Don Bornhorst calling it the darkest day in Comair's history. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of our passengers and crew involved in the accident.

Thus far it has been confirmed that the aircraft was on the wrong runway- which obviously flags some questions. 1) how did the aircraft manage to get there and begin takeoff roll without either the captain or FO realizing it was the wrong, unlit runway. 2) where was the tower controller at the time and why didn't he realize and notify the crew of the error.

Our president said it best in the news conference yesterday that speculation isn't going to get us anywhere. Watching the news yesterday drove me nuts, because as usual the media has no idea what the hell they're talking about. The news kept showing this photo from the Comair website, which is clearly a 70 seater (the one that crashed was a 50).

They even had one reporter on CNN say, and I quote, "Crashes like this are sometimes caused by subcontracted, farmed out maintenance. We'll certainly want to know who Comair subcontracts to perform their maintenance." Lady, get your facts right! We don't subcontract maintenance, it's all done by Comair people. LEX is even a Comair maintenance hub.

The saddest part of the whole accident is the reports that the aircraft was basically intact. The crash itself was basically survivable, but the fire wasn't. Our flights to ATL load up with about 9,000 pounds of fuel, and I'd imagine a flight from Lexington would have around 8,000 pounds onboard. We heard that the FO was pulled out of the flight deck window, and the guy that pulled him out of the window received burns also.

Mike,

Your last paragraph brings the true tragedy here into vivid perspective.

I echo Barry's sentiments in that our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who perished, and also you guys at Comair who must be hurting real bad just now.

kindest regards

John

Often, the media do more harm than good and I think this is one of those cases. Your president is right, speculation is useless.[n]

VS.

[Bazz]

Mike, looks like things are not geeting any better. NTSB seems to be confirming that the aircraft took off from the shorter 3500 foot runway and could not gain sufficient speed/altitude - God knows why they ended up rolling on the wrong one?

Thank you Mike for the information and I think we all agree with you that the media just sensationalise situations like this all the time.

As previuosly mentioned our thoughts are with the all concerned and as a contributor to VF I would personally like to thank you for taking the time to share whats happened with us.

[Bazz]

Thought your CEO handled the press conferences really well, very difficult time for him and all your co-workers.

Originally posted by Bazz
Thought your CEO handled the press conferences really well, very difficult time for him and all your co-workers.

We were discussing this just yesterday at work. Comair is a VERY family and community value based company. About 6 months ago there was a ramp accident with a belt loader in DTW, which resulted in the death of one of our ramp agents. The entire executive team flew to DTW for the funeral, and from what I've heard they all cried through the service. The president of Comair (at the time Fred Buttrel) stood up at the funeral and, in tears, said he felt like it was his fault. All this from a group of people that had never met the agent. There were a few moments during the press conference in LEX that it looked like Don was having a hard time emotionally, as is expected, but he came off very professional in my opinon.

Personally I feel that despite the accident itself, Comair has come out of this very professionally. At a time when Delta just put out a request for bid to other carriers to take over Comair operations; this was the last time we needed something like this to happen, but from what I've seen, it has been handled very well.

The real question now is how did the crew manage to make the mistake without either the captain or FO realizing, and why didn't the tower controller notice it and abort their takeoff. Weather conditions were decent enough that the tower controller should have been able to see the airfield and aircraft.

[Bazz]

Mike I watched Don's first press conference from LEX live on Fox, he certainly did choke up and who can blame him! Nevertheless he handled the whole thing supremely well.

The mistake was very unfortunate, maybe the CVR will provide the answers or the FO when, hopefully, he is well enough. If it was pilot error he will have a heavy burden to carry.

I see Reuters are reporting the FO was PIC at the time of the crash, there is also some confusion over the runway lighting.

A temporary advisory to pilots warning of the lighting outages on the longer runway used by commercial flights at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport had expired the day before the crash, the aviation sources said.

A witness to the accident, a ramp employee of another airline, told investigators the 3,500-foot (1-km) Runway 26 used by the jet was dark, while the lights were lit alongside the 7,000-foot-long (2-km) intersecting Runway 22 used by commercial air traffic at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport.

Reuters

To be honest I don't even understand the runway lighting situation. I've heard from other pilots that there is runway lighting, but it's off the side of the runway a ways, and makes the runway seem wider than it is.

Apparently the short runway is 75' in width, and the long one is 150' in width. However what I've heard is that the lighting on the short one is a ways off the runway's edge, giving you the feeling that you're on a wider runway than you are.

That said, I think it was the airport comissioner that said in a press conference that the shorter runway has no lighting. Although that same person said that condition of both runways was "fine", and according to AirNav the condition of runway 8/26: Surface: asphalt/concrete, in poor condition CONC IS SEVERELY CRACKED. There is also a weight bearing capacity of only 12500lbs on 8/26, I guess thats a loose intrepretation of "fine".

[Decker]

Just in on CNN

"-- FAA acknowledges it violated staffing policies with only one air traffic controller on duty at airport when Comair jet crashed Sunday, killing 49 people."

Which contradicts the main story at http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/29/plane.crash/index.html

"the airport's tower manager has told investigators that having a single controller on duty early on a Sunday morning was "not inconsistent with their staffing levels over the last 10 years" and met Federal Aviation Administration requirements, Hersman said."

Full Size Version

In memory of our coworkers and the passengers of flight 5191.
August 27, 2006.

1024x768 wallpaper including photo of the actual aircraft lost,
ship 7472 (N431CA), and our Comair flight crew.

[Bazz]

Any news on the FO's condition Mike?

[ChuckC]

Mike,
I know this is tough on you and the entire COMAIR family. Please know our thoughts are with you.

I flew a COMAIR CRJ a week prior to the accident and found the crew professional and very friendly (the flight attendant was pregant and just glowing).

While the press will nearly always get things wrong and infrequent flyers will fret and worry that the world is ending, those of us who are in the air a lot concentrate on the fact that the US has been accident-free for nearly five years (in jets).

Best regards,
Chuck-

Originally posted by Bazz
Any news on the FO's condition Mike?

We've heard that he is getting better. He's had quite an ordeal with dozens of broken bones and a collapsed lung. The last report I heard was that he is alert and responding to basic commands. There's a chance that he may loose his leg, and the doctors won't common about his chances of a full recovery or anything.

Thanks for your kind words Chuck.

[Bazz]

I hope he makes a full physical recovery Mike, I fear the mental trauma will take much longer.

Hope that things are getting back to some semblance of normality for you and your co-workers.

Barry