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#605683 - 08/28/06 02:08 PM Comair Flight 5191
~Special K~ Offline
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What an awful, tragic, horrific accident that took place yesterday.
I live in Lexington, KY and I tell ya....it was unbelievable.
I'm so saddened...

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#605684 - 08/28/06 02:07 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
Miscuit Offline
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Heard about that...yes...so very sad. Wasn't there a lone survivor? The copilot, I believe.

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#605685 - 08/28/06 02:11 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
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Ok, I'm perplexed about the whole "He used the wrong runway" thing. If the pilot made a mistake, how did Air Traffic Control not realize this???
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#605686 - 08/28/06 02:14 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
Miscuit Offline
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I didn't quite understand that either. Was hoping to hear more details because that just doesn't make sense to me.

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#605687 - 08/28/06 02:25 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
MadisonCali Offline
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I read that this is a mistake that does happen periodically, and that there is a portion of this airport that was recently reopened after some work was done.
Maybe that was a factor?
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#605688 - 08/28/06 02:44 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
~Special K~ Offline
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The runways had just been repaved last weekend. The short runway has no lights.
If you've seen the graphics of the runway, the 2 cross paths, I could see some confusion in this.

The lone survivor was a First Officer...hopefully he makes a full recovery...enough to fill in the gaps.

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#605689 - 08/28/06 02:59 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
Bengals Fan Offline
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This is a sad sad event, and I pray for all the families of the people who lost their lives.

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#605690 - 08/28/06 03:12 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
steven1950 Offline
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San Francisco
I just read that two of the passengers were newlyweds married the night before the crash. They were starting their honeymoon. I can't imagine anything more terrible for someone to go through in the moments just before the crash. So sad.

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#605691 - 08/28/06 03:25 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
ChicagoGuy Offline
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From the story I read, apparently the tower had given the plane permission to take off on runway number 22. A response of "roger" came back from the cockpit as a response to that directive given by the tower. The pilot actually took off from runway number 26 which intersects with 22. Somehow the pilot chose the wrong runway to take off from. Unless the surviving flight crew member can fill in the blanks when he recovers (..that is IF he recovers as he is badly injured..), we may never know why this happened. It's so sad.....

Our thoughts and prayers must be with the greiving families right now.

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#605692 - 08/28/06 03:40 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
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Quote:

From the story I read, apparently the tower had given the plane permission to take off on runway number 22. A response of "roger" came back from the cockpit as a response to that directive given by the tower. The pilot actually took off from runway number 26 which intersects with 22. Somehow the pilot chose the wrong runway to take off from. Unless the surviving flight crew member can fill in the blanks when he recovers (..that is IF he recovers as he is badly injured..), we may never know why this happened. It's so sad.....

Our thoughts and prayers must be with the greiving families right now.




The thing is that Runway numbers correspond to compass headings. If you are cleared for #22 but are sitting on #26, I would think that an experienced pilot and co-pilot would realize that their compass heading was reading 260 instead of 220.

Just my 2 cents. I realize that everything is speculation at this point. But like I said, I am quite perplexed by this.
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#605693 - 08/28/06 04:38 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
steven1950 Offline
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Today, the FAA hopes to release a transript of the cockpit voice recorder. Maybe that will answer some questions.

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#605694 - 08/28/06 04:58 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
Jokerman Offline
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Quote:

Ok, I'm perplexed about the whole "He used the wrong runway" thing. If the pilot made a mistake, how did Air Traffic Control not realize this???




So, is the working theory that they took off on a shorter runway, passed the point of no return before realizing it, and then stalled when they had to pull up before attaining the needed speed?

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#605695 - 08/28/06 05:17 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
joeball Offline
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Bluegrass State
The pastor who performed the ceremony for the newlyweds is a Sr. loan officer at the bank I work for.

This was truly a tragic event and I pray for all the families who have lost loved ones.
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#605696 - 08/28/06 05:49 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
Skittles Offline
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TN
This is an extraordinary tragic event. One man was hurrying home to Florida to be with his children. Another was a director of Habitat for Humanity who was going to Mississippi to assist in the construction of Habitat homes. I just can't phathom how the families of these 49 people feel.
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#605697 - 08/28/06 06:12 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
Pettybone Offline
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If he was actually cleared to 26 and taxied to 22 it is a huge pilot error as well as that of control tower personnel.

Prior to leaving the gate the pilot contacts ground control and receives permission to taxi to the holding area of the active runway. He is monitored by the ground controller who is looking out the window of the tower to see where the airplane is. Once the plane arrives at the active runway he is given permission to transfer to the tower frequency where he is told when to taxi out on to the active and take off. Both the ground controller and the tower controller should be looking out the window at the active runway.

In a small airport the ground and tower controller could be the same person, but I suspect Lexington has at least couple people on each shift.

A question arises as to why no one in the tower did not see the plane was not at the corect active runway if that was actually the case.

There are only a few legal requirements a pilot must due prior to take off. One of them is to determine the length of the take off roll to get the plane airborn, and that the length of the runway will accomodate that. So the pilots had to know that 26 was the runway needed to get the airplane airborn. Part of the take off check list is aligning the compass with the artifical compass. So the pilots had to know they were at a heading of 22 (thats 220 degrees there are 360 degrees in a circle)and not 260 degrees which should be the heading of the runway calculated to be needed for takeoff.

Unless another mistake was made and they calculated that the 3400 ft of runway 22 was adaquet. Part of the calculation includes the gross weight of the aircraft. Ground personnel could have given the pilot an incorrect figure which showed the plane lighter than it actually was.

To many potential failures of procedures here so not sure we have all the facts and certainly not enough facts to come to any conclusions on why it happened yet.

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#605698 - 08/28/06 06:46 PM Re: Comair Flight 5191
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Further South than I wanna be.
Two of the people that died is from this area. A young girl, her mom and her friend were there looking at horses. Her mom got bumped or she and the friend took the earlier flight, I have heard both stories. Her mom was at the airport when the crash happened. I can't imagine how much pain she is suffering.
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