[dalereed]

Since the airport is tower controled 24/7 this is another classic San Diego PSA.

Taking off on the wrong runway it had to be a screw up by the pilot, ground control, and the tower.

Any one of the three could/should have stopped the takeoff.

[Pukin Dog]

Yep. Unfamiliar with the field, got a via to 22, didn't know that coming from the terminal that they would have to pass 26. Got to the first runway and took it. Might have been raining hard, no lights on 26 as VFR only, bought the farm.

[Sting 11]

MSNBC just said there was only one controller in the tower. This is very common at airports the size of LEX. At 6:00am, LEX was likely "TRACAB'd", which means a single controller was working approach/departure, tower, and ground control combined. This is perfectly normal and not a contributing factor. There is almost no air traffic at 6:00am on a Sunday.