Posted on 02/22/2007 6:52:55 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
Comair sued the federal government Thursday, saying the Federal Aviation Administration was negligent in having only one air traffic controller on duty when one of its commuter planes crashed last year killing 49 people.The lawsuit says the U.S. government breached its duty to control taxiing and departing aircraft at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport.
The airplane crashed in a field just beyond the airport Aug. 27 after the pilots mistakenly turned onto a too-short, 3,500-foot runway in the dark. A week earlier, an airport repaving project changed the taxi route leading to the 7,000-foot main runway that Comair Flight 5191 should have used.
Co-pilot James Polehinke was the only survivor among the 50 people aboard.
Comair claims the FAA failed to properly staff the control tower with two air traffic controllers. Instead, only one was on duty that morning, and he had turned away from the runway before Comair Flight 5191 took off.
A previous lawsuit filed against the FAA in October claimed the agency failed in its duty to inspect and approve construction along the taxi route leading to the main runway. That suit was dismissed Tuesday.
Comair, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Inc., operates 850 flights to 108 cities daily. Both airlines filed for bankruptcy protection last year.
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The pilots deserve most of the blame, but there should have been another controller, too.
Oh BS.
One of the things a pilot is supposed to do prior to takeoff is verify that his compass heading and directional gyro agree and that the airplane is pointing down the right runway.
If the runway is 33, the gyro will show at the top 330 degrees. There is no guessing involved.
It was purely pilot error. He had taken off that airport that he didn't bother checking.
The controller will not double check in normal times.
That is not true. Handling the airplane is always the responsibility of the Pilot.
The controller will give a clearance, but it is up to the pilot to follow the clearance. The pilot obviously did not follow the clearance, or his own check sheet outlining procedures and steps to take.
I am a pilot.
It shouldn't be a death sentance for making a minor oversight, or mistake, but when you learn to fly, you find that flight and everything about it is very unforgiving.
When you take your Instrument flight test, just one mistake makes it so you fail and have to retrain and take that part over. Zero mistakes.
I don't know your occupation, and if I did I would not try to tell you how to do it correctly if I wasn't an expert at it. I recently retired after 35 years as a controller, 13 of them in Chicago. So, I DO know where the blame lies here, and it AIN'T in the tower. Last I knew it was in a hospital bed, and damned lucky to be there.
It's the pilot's job to look out the window and verify they're on the right runway.
If it's the wrong heading and has no lights, that's a pretty good clue something is desperately wrong.
Comair is setting themselves up for a world of hurt. The FAA lawyer will be all over their training syllabus, the PIC's training jacket and the copilot's training jacket. As soon as they find out the syllabus makes sure they know not to take off on an unlit runway at night, it's over.
> [T]he "controllers" are in control of what they are doing.
FAR 91.3(a) - The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.
The tower, the flight plan, the compass, visuals and the other pilot in that cockpit are all resources with which the pilot uses to crosscheck his decisions. If they had been utilizing them all and paying better attention, this error very likely wouldn't have happened.
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