ComAir Flight #1591

Update: I thought it might be appropriate to point out that evidently the reason for the mishap had to do with the revamping of the airport and the runways. It proved confusing to the pilot, who evidently was not that used to the Lexington Bluegrass Airport, though he had been there a small number of times.

But what really sealed the fate of the flight was that there was only one air traffic controller on duty at the time of the incident. There should have been two. The pilot of flight 9151 had been cleared for take-off on the correct runway, but had veered onto the shorter one, and this was not caught by the one on-duty controller who had his hands full. He had turned to deal with another plane when 9151 took off.

Why was there only one air traffic controller when there should have been two? Was it another example of cost-cutting, or had the second on duty controller walked off his post due to illness or for a break, or whatever? I don't know. It still isn't clear.

Governor Fletcher, has vowed that the problem that caused the confusion will be fixed, but I'm not sure what he thinks he can do about it. Someone said something about erecting barriers of some sort, but I don't see how that is feasible, seeing as how the two runways in question seem to intersect. Of course, I guess the points of intersection could be left open.

Whatever, I'm sure the problem will eventually be addressed, hopefully in a satisfactory manner, by someone suppossedly more intelligent than myself.




This morning, Sunday, at about 6:07 a.m., a plane, Flight #5191, bound for Atlanta from Lexington's Bluegrass Airport crashed almost immediately upon take off and, filled with fuel, burst into flames. Out of fifty people reported to be on board, there is of now only one survivor, evidently the co-pilot, who was last listed as being in critical condition at an area hospital. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there is no suspicion of terrorism.

What seems to have happenned is, the pilot, an employee of ComAir for only about seven years and a pilot since 2002, went down the wrong runway. The major runway, at a length of a little over seven thousand feet, intersected with another runway of half that distance, and somehow he inadverdently veered onto the shorter runway. By the time he took off, the landing gear, still disengaged, clipped a series of trees, which caused the plane to come crashing into the field of a neighboring farm, causing no injuries or property damage to buildings, plants, or livestock.

With the exception for now of the co-pilot, however, all 47 pasengers and other two crew members, including the captain, were probably killed instantaneously, by the impact and explosion of the jet fuel, which according to some who heard it from a distance sounded much like a clap of thunder. One area resident spoke of his windows vibrating.

It is the second worse aviation disaster in Kentucky's history. The worse was in the late nineteen sixties, when a plane leaving Northern Kentuckys Greater Cincinati Airport crashed, killing 69 of 82 people on board.

I am suspecting that possibly the pilot mght have been drunk, or tired and/or overstressed through overwork, or maybe a combination of similar factors. Bluegrass Airport was not unfamiliar to him, so this would seem to be a rational enough explanation. I just wonder if he or the co-pilot caught the mistake in just enough time to react in such a way as to make matters worse.

What I wonder even more is if this will indeed turn out to be a consequence of airlines cutting costs by cutting back on employees and demanding more time from those they have. It will be interesting to find out the amount of flight hours logged by this particular pilot.

If my suspicions are correct, this could lead to an investigation and review of hours logged by other pilots of this particular airline, and maybe others as well. It could also lead to a class action lawsuit which, if my suspicions are correct, would not in this case be innapropriate.