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Posted on 08/30/2006 11:35:54 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Lexington - The pilots on doomed Comair Flight 5191 initially boarded the wrong plane before taking off from the wrong runway, according to a US newspaper report on Wednesday.
The pilots got to the airport at about 05:15, boarded the wrong plane and began flight preparations before a gate worker noticed the error and told the pilots to change aircraft, the Washington Post reported, citing Deborah Hersman of the national transportation safety board.
Investigators on Tuesday said only one air traffic controller was on duty when the flight took off from a Kentucky airport, and he had turned his back as the jet went down the wrong runway and crashed.
The lone controller on the overnight shift at Blue Grass Airport cleared the fully loaded Bombardier for take-off on the correct runway early on Sunday and "turned his back to perform administrative duties", Hersman told the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper.
The ill-fated plane lined up in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday on a shorter, unlit runway intended only for the daytime use of smaller, private planes.
Investigators are baffled as to why the pilots did not use the longer runway, which was illuminated.
The jetliner took off too low, clipped trees and crashed less than a mile from the airport, killing 49 people, everyone on board but the co-pilot.
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Talk about a stacked deck against you.
As is always the case, a series of events leads to tragedies as this. We probably will never know many of the sequences.
My sympathies go out to all the familes and loved ones of those who died on board.
Two colossal errors.
It makes you wonder what they were smoking before coming to work.
>>>> wrong runway.......Delta Air Lines <<<<<<
Hmmm?
Delta Increasing Cockpit Diversity By Training Pilots for Free
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a6ee7ae76dd.htm
And the one air traffic controller only had two hours of sleep, according to an article on Drudge.
One of the first posts on that other thread was a description of the runways. Here's something on the shorter runway:
Obstructions: 25 ft. tree, 400 ft. from runway, 150 ft. right of centerline, 8:1 slope to clear 17 ft. pole, 552 ft. from runway, 39 ft. left of centerline, 20:1 slope to clear
Its weird to think one of these "obstructions" played a role.
I saw that when I reread the thread. It is so cool when Freepers get busy.
"FR scooped Drudge and maybe everybody, on this story when it broke."
Well, sorry then for any unintentional redundancy. I wasn't "scooping" it as breaking news... just including it in the growing list of amazing airport errors, since it was missing in the article above.
No reason to apologize. Mine was simply a comment on what Freepers do so well. Your post was very on target.
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/082006/08312006/218133
Crash victims had local links (Photo of Cecile Moscoe at link above)
A Madison High graduate and a former Spotsylvania couple died Sunday in a plane crash in Lexington, Ky., that killed 49.
By DONNIE JOHNSTON and JENN ROWELL
Date published: 8/31/2006
By DONNIE JOHNSTON and JENN ROWELL
A Madison County High School graduate who attended school in Culpeper and a former Spotsylvania County couple were among the 49 victims who died in Sunday's airliner crash in Lexington, Ky.
Cecile Moscoe, 29, of Madison, was bound for New Orleans through Atlanta on business when Comair Flight 5191 crashed during takeoff from Blue Grass Airport.
The couple, Clark, 48, and Bobbie Benton, 50, lived in the Fredericksburg area off and on for two decades when Clark was stationed at Quantico Marine Corps Base, longtime family friend Ruth Kelly said.
Moscoe, who graduated from Madison County High School in 1995, received her elementary education at St. Luke's Lutheran School in Culpeper.
"She was an enthusiastic learner who always had a contribution," recalled Nancy Knewstep, Moscoe's sixth-grade teacher. "And she was very independent."
Knewstep remembers that even as a sixth-grader, Moscoe was an enthusiastic skeet shooter who did a report on trajectory as a science project. Her mother, Kathy Moscoe, was also a champion skeet shooter
"She was a crack shot," Knewstep said, adding, "She didn't always take the traditional path."
Culpeper County Assistant School Superintendent Larry Carter, who was Moscoe's principal at Madison, had fond memories of her.
"She was a friend to all," he said. "Everyone who knew her felt like her best friend."
Moscoe, who was captain of the varsity cheerleading squad her senior year, got married only a few months out of high school and moved to Alaska with her husband, who was in the military.
While there, she took college classes and worked for the McDonald's restaurant chain, said Knewstep, who corresponded periodically with her former student until a few years ago.
Moscoe's father, Dr. Jay Moscoe, is a general practitioner in the town of Madison and worked in the Culpeper Memorial Hospital emergency room in the 1980s.
Cecile Moscoe moved to Lexington in 2002 and was an account representative with Galls, a police safety equipment company based there. She and three other Galls' employees were en route to New Orleans to service one of the company's accounts, the New Orleans Police Department.
Moscoe was divorced at the time of her death. She had no children.
Originally from Kentucky, the Benton family moved back there after Clark Benton retired from the Marines three or four years ago. He was working as a principal network engineer for General Dynamics Network Systems and Bobbie Benton was working for an eye doctor.
Their oldest son, Richard Benton, graduated from Chancellor High School in 1999.
Kelly met the family at Annandale Church of Christ and later worshipped with them at Spotsylvania Church of Christ. After returning to Kentucky, the Bentons were active at Fort Logan Church of Christ in Stanford.
The couple was bound for Aruba to celebrate Bobbie Benton's 50th birthday when the plane crashed.
Kelly hadn't talked to the Bentons since they moved back to Kentucky, but she spoke with their daughter, Mary, Monday night.
"She's holding up pretty good, it probably hasn't hit her," Kelly said.
"Bobbie and Clark were always having people over, real friendly people, real caring people," Kelly said. "Everywhere they went, they always made an impression."
The family is hoping to have a funeral on Friday, according to Kelly, but it may be postponed because of difficulties in recovering the bodies. Clark Benton will be buried with full military honors, Kelly said.
The family has asked that no flowers be sent, Kelly said, and that those wishing to do so make donations to a charity instead.
Information for this story came from The Lexington Herald-Leader.
Exactly what was the pilot smoking? I thought the idea of them taking off from the wrong runway (that was not illuminated for use) was bad enough, but to find out they also tried to fly the WRONG plane in the first place....oh boy...
If you note in the above photo, the pilot would have had to
cross the "Active" Lighted Runway(Darker diagonal pavement
with the large white rectangles)
That in it self should have been a glaring "CLUE"
that they were on the wrong runway. They would have had ample room to abort the takeoff.
They also should have noted the lack if runway markings
which designate it a instrument runway...
The more I learn of the circumstances of this accident the more I scratch my head
One thing I don't understand -- was the shorter runway open or closed?
The reason I ask is that I was on a flight ot of LAX the other day (I fly weekly) and there were big huge 12' x 12' standing illuminated "X" signs up at both ends (and at the taxiways) of a runway that had some construction equipment on it.
If the shorter runway was closed this would be a very inexpensive way to ensure it isn't used.
I believe I did read that the lights were OFF on the short runway and ON on the long one. I do not have time right now to confirm that. Anyone have that?
Two six wasn't closed. It just wasn't suitable for the CRJ.
As I understand, the rwy lights were off on 26.
Ah -- thanks.
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