ComAir 191 Down in Lexington, KY

Ford SportTrac Forum

Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
News here says Delta flight.... I think delta owns them???

Sucks...

Hope the one surviver makes it..

Todd Z
 
Delta owns Comair. The first officer will need all prayers during and after his recovery.
 
Confirmed Partial List Of Crash Victims



Below is a partial list of victims confirmed by various sources by LEX 18 of the crash of Comair flight 5191 Sunday morning, with ages and hometowns listed when possible:



Capt. Jeffrey Adam Clay, Burlington, KY (pilot)

Kelly J. Heyer, 27, Cincinnati (flight attendant)

Dan Mallory, Lexington

Leslie and Kaye Morris, Lexington

John Hooker, 27, and Scarlett Parsley Hooker, 23, London

Mike Finley, 52, London

Holly Gilbert, London

Bobby Meaux, Harrodsburg

Cecile Moscoux

Erik Harris

Bryan Byrd, Richmond

Judy Rains, Richmond

Pat Smith, Lexington

Larry Turner, Lexington

C.W. Fortney

Bart Frederick, Danville

Carole Bizzack, Richmond

George Brunacini, Lexington

Charles Lykins, Naples, FL

Jeff Williams, 49, Lexington

Page Winters, 16, Shawnee Mission, KS
 
This accident will keep Comair in BK for a long time. It was pilot error that caused the accident. Almost all of the people on board were from the :exington-Cental Kentucky area. Hooker and his wife were married just the night before in a storybook wedding.

All of the local pilots that were talked to yesterday said that there is no way that this should have occured. Somebody was not paying attention to their procedures.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all the families of the victims and also to all of the rescue people involved. They did a magnificent job in handling this ordeal.
 
George Brunacini is from Albuquerque, NM, he was a very well known businessman there. He owned several businesses and breed race horses. I guess whoever made up the list misqued on his place of residence.

BTW...please keep the families & friends of this people that lost their lives in this terrible tradegy in your prayers.
 
Don't be so quick to judge. Wait until the ATC tapes are pulled. I think there was some discussion with the tower about which runway to use. Just wait until all the facts are there before you judge the Crew.
 
Some discussion of which runway to use? One was 3500' and the other was 7000'. What is there to discuss??? The PIC chose which runway to take off from. The responsibility of the flight lies soley on him and not on the controller. Even if the controller told him the incorrect runway, it's up to the PIC to know which is correct. Sadly, pilot error.
 
As I talk to a local pilot here at work and look at the runway configuration, my buddy and I think this is pilot error as well. The shorter runways were oriented almost 180degs different from the long runway. As Curtis said, its up to the pilot to know his plane and the minimum runway length needed for takeoff, as well as the airport layout and its runways. If the shorter and the longer runway were parallel, meaning the pilot would see the same heading if sitting on one vs the other, than I would give him more of a pass. But given that if sitting on either of the shorter runways at Lexington the pilot would have a heading vastly different than the one expected on the longer runway it suggests pilot error.



The pilot is supposed to check the heading prior to takeoff.



TJR
 
Certainly have to wait and hear what they find in terms of facts. But it sure looks on the surface like a case of just being too comfortable with the situation. But, how on earth did the tower clear them to takeoff on that runway and how did the pilot actually take the wrong runway (or take the runway thinking it was longer?). I did plenty of stupid things while flying, but I can't imagine actually taking the wrong runway. It's almost like the pilot and tower all intended to use that runway but somehow did not recognize the short length. Sad day...
 
Even with little visibility and an unlit runway the pilot should have seen his heading prior to takeoff wasn't that as expected on the long runway and then radioed the tower for a check.



TJR
 
My uncle was interviewed about this. He is an instructor pilot for the Civil Air Patrol in Lexington. There's a short blurb and photo at the link.
 
This is the link to a list of all who perished. Since I grew up in Lexington, I have been following this to make sure none of my friends were on-board. None were.
 
The shorter runways were oriented almost 180degs different from the long runway....If the shorter and the longer runway were parallel, meaning the pilot would see the same heading if sitting on one vs the other, than I would give him more of a pass.



TJR, runways that are 180 degrees different from each other ARE parallel. Runways that are "almost" 180 degrees different from each other are "almost" parallel. The headings on parallel runways are identical, and the headings on "almost" parallel runways are "almost" identical.



I'm not familiar with the layout of this airport, so can't comment on this specific situation, but your comments certainly sounded to me like they were contradicting themselves.
 
Excuse me, BillV, I meant almost 90 deg.



The layout, if you can visualize it, has one long runway and two shorter ones. The two shorter ones criss-cross the long ones in an X shape, if memory serves.



Sorry about my geometry. My point, which I made terribly, was that none of the three runways were parallel to each other, and the two shorter ones would have distinctly different headings than the long one.



The national news keeps talking about the "single controller" and how he looked away as the plane took off. I think there will be blame enough for everyone on this one.



TJR
 
But ultimately the blame lies with the Pilot In Command. As PIC you're responsible for the safety of the flight. To ensure you're on the correct runway, etc. Those of us who went through flight training knows that you verify before you execute.
 
Pilot was cleared for runway 22 but departed on 26. These runways are not anywhere near parallel. The controller is not required to watch while a plane departs. Once the pilot is cleared to take the active and depart, the controller is out of the picture. The pilots were not paying attention to detail. The fact that runway lights were off should have been an indication that something wasn't quite right. A check of compass heading would have shown that the plane was not anywhere close to being on a heading of 220 which it would have been if they were on runway 22. Several small errors adding up to one big tragedy.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top