On August 27th, 2006, at around 6:00 am, Comair Flight 5191 crashed during takeoff from Lexington Bluegrass Airport.
The airplane was scheduled to depart from the airport to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, with 50 passengers and crew on board. However, an issue occurred, speculated due to pilot and flight crew error, ineffective procedures, or even the lack of two controllers during the time of takeoff.(The most likely cause was pilot error due to their ignorance towards their cues.) No matter what error occurred, the plane, scheduled to take off at Runway 22, instead went to Runway 26, a much shorter runway, so that it didn't achieve lift, and ran off the runway, crashing into the trees and fence at the airport's perimeter. Only 1 of the 50 passengers and crew survived, and that was First Officer James Polehinke, who was suspected of not following appropriate procedure and received many lawsuits from families. To be fair though, he did get hurt very, very badly, and tried to also file a lawsuit against the airport; there were probably other factors involved, but at this point, it's hard to say what exactly is to blame.
Either way, this marks the 9th anniversary of the accident, and people still go to the memorial built in the University of Kentucky Arboretum for this event.
Luckily, Bluegrass Airport has also changed many things about their policies and procedures for safety over the years, as well as rebuilding Runaway 26 so that it did not cross Runway 22.
- Cici Mao
Sources:
http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Pages/Attempted_Takeoff_from_Wrong_Runway_Comair_Flight_5191_Bombardier_CL-600-2B19_N431CA_Lexington_Kentucky_August_27_2006.aspx
http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Wednesday-marks-eighth-anniversary-of-Comair-flight-5191-crash-272752561.html
http://www.onthisday.com/date/2006/august/27
http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Remembering-Comair-Flight-5191--323058751.html
The airplane was scheduled to depart from the airport to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, with 50 passengers and crew on board. However, an issue occurred, speculated due to pilot and flight crew error, ineffective procedures, or even the lack of two controllers during the time of takeoff.(The most likely cause was pilot error due to their ignorance towards their cues.) No matter what error occurred, the plane, scheduled to take off at Runway 22, instead went to Runway 26, a much shorter runway, so that it didn't achieve lift, and ran off the runway, crashing into the trees and fence at the airport's perimeter. Only 1 of the 50 passengers and crew survived, and that was First Officer James Polehinke, who was suspected of not following appropriate procedure and received many lawsuits from families. To be fair though, he did get hurt very, very badly, and tried to also file a lawsuit against the airport; there were probably other factors involved, but at this point, it's hard to say what exactly is to blame.
Either way, this marks the 9th anniversary of the accident, and people still go to the memorial built in the University of Kentucky Arboretum for this event.
Luckily, Bluegrass Airport has also changed many things about their policies and procedures for safety over the years, as well as rebuilding Runaway 26 so that it did not cross Runway 22.
- Cici Mao
Sources:
http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Pages/Attempted_Takeoff_from_Wrong_Runway_Comair_Flight_5191_Bombardier_CL-600-2B19_N431CA_Lexington_Kentucky_August_27_2006.aspx
http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Wednesday-marks-eighth-anniversary-of-Comair-flight-5191-crash-272752561.html
http://www.onthisday.com/date/2006/august/27
http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Remembering-Comair-Flight-5191--323058751.html
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