Posted on 08/27/2006 4:38:10 AM PDT by BigBlueJon
Edited on 08/27/2006 5:02:21 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Possible plane crash in Lexington, KY. My brother works security for Lexington UK Hospital and was just called in. No news locally or on major news outlets yet. I didn't want to post anything for fear of being wrong, but he's still waiting for an official call while on stand-by.
Update from WTVQ 36 Lexington:
A plane has crashed near the Blue Grass Airport this morning. No word on details at this time. We are told it was a commercial aircraft. Versailles Road is blocked as emergency vehicles circle around the site. We have live coverage beginning at 7:20am. Stay with Action News 36 for more details.
It is difficult enough to deal with the sudden loss of a loved one. Even more difficult also having to wait for information. I fully believe that local authorities, medical response, airport response, etc. responded as well as could be under this stressful situation.
There is a line of clipped trees and fences from the end of the short runway to the crash site - no turn around here.
Isn't that the way it usually happens though? Many things go wrong. If just one error can be corrected an accident is prevented but usually things just keeps rolling.
I hear you but the difference in the 2 runways is mind boggling - lit vs unlit, short vs long, beat up concrete vs smooth asphalt for jet traffic, wide vs narrow.
Impaired?
I would assume he had some familarity of that small layout? This is not Hartsfield or LaGuardia. Do they not have line of sight down the runway???
I feel terrible for all of this. Is the First Officer who survived the pilot? I heard there was an extra driver on board, prolly in the ljump seat, I would guess.
I've had 2 experiences with this, one from my own company, and one where I happened to be the only management-type that was accident qualified in the airport at the time, and had it dumped in my lap...
Between upset families, and maniacal media desperate for the crying mother shot, airport authorities have thier hands full, and can only stand there and be screamed at..
While this sounds like a pilot-error accident, I can't help but feel for the 3 or 4 part-timers that just got this dumped in thier laps..
The "Crash Packs" are the LAST thing your thinking about at 6am...
Departure end of 8, or departure end of 26... I cannot believe I haven't seen any aerial pictures of this crash, after over 6 hours...
As long as human beings are going to fly airplanes, we can be sure that some joker is going to screw the pooch and cause a perfectly good aircraft to collide with the ground. It happens.
The FO if he lives, is going to have a fate worse than death, because he knows they screwed the pooch and got people roasted. That aircraft with a tank of fuel was NOT going to leave the GA runway safely. If they got clearance there, they should have refused it. The guy with the stick gets the blame, no matter who else did whatever.
Wrong runway, hit a hanger, belly flopped, caught fire, dead people. THATS IT. All the speculation going on in the media is just nonsense.
It has been already confirmed that the pilots took off on the wrong runway. I don't know how you could try to pin the blame on someone else. I highly doubt that LEX tower cleared them on a 3,500 ft. runway that is only to be used during daylight hours and VFR conditions--and that is never used for commercial ops.
At a controlled airport, ATC tells the pilot which runway to taxi to, and I just can't see a scenario where the controller would tell the pilot to taxi to runway 26 full length, much less a 26 intersection. I would be very interested to hear the ATC tape on this one...
Also, flow contol to ATL begins at 6:00am EDT 24/7/365 (at least for TOL...I have to assume LEX is the same way), so the tower would have needed to acquire a departure release time from Indianapolis Center's Traffic Management Unit for this flight, and I don't think they would be trying to beat the rush at all. Plus, I have to doubt LEX would have any other traffic (besides maybe one other plane or so) at 6 in the morning on a Sunday, where the controller would have to "shoot a gap".
The fact is it won't be hard at all for the investigators to determine the runway that was used. ATC tapes and the flight data recorder will tell the story. The runway theory will be confirmed or denied relatively shortly.
Hmm, I've found the ERJ-140/145s that American Eagle flies, to be more comfortable than the 757 I usually connect to. Yea, the ride is bumpier, but only because the flight is so short they don't really get up above the bumpy low level region.
see #369
"All the speculation going on in the media is just nonsense.:
Agreed
In the pilots check list, doesn't he/she have a picture of the airport they are taking off from and the length of the runways. I just don't know.
The N-Number is either N431CA or N435CA (MSNs 7472 or 7473).
Yeah, thank God for inflicting this on someone else you don't know. Yay God! Way to pick 'em! Who cares about the other guy's friends and family, God's picked ME ME ME for a special favor!
-ccm
There is always a NAV chart available, that doesn't mean they ever looked at it, or if they had ever flown out of there before. My guess is that they were late, rushed, and got bit. That was a VFR runway. 3500 feet is barely if at all enough room to get that thing airborne. Fox should shut up about flaps, because without them, that thing would have never left the ground at that distance.
As in 99% of all accidents like this, the pilots simply blew it. It will happen again, and again and again.
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