Oh hell.
I think every pilot's made that mistake, but normally in a small Cessna as a student -- not in commercial aviation. There's normally enough safeguards to prevent it.
My guess is fatigue, last minute runway change, or "just in a hurry" and misheard 35R instead of 35L (or something like that). The tower probably saw it, but only once it was too late.
Pilots?
Its amazing all the time spent on engines and maintenence etc when it seems pretty clear what happened.
Boeing must be loving it.
Fox reporting that most deaths due to fire - one crew member survived - probably up front and away from the fuel.
Antoher thing - you would figure that the crew would be able to eyebqll the length of the runway from the gitgo.
I am not a pilot but there is a BIG difference in the lengths and they should have been able to see the ends of BOTH runways prior to takeoff.
I think there is something more to this.
Anybody have a link to the google map location of site or to the burned hanger?
You would think the FAA would insist of specific runway numbers that shouldn't sound similar.
Is Lex a 24 hour tower??