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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...

Clay: (05:40:27.1) It's amazing though right now. They are using everybody pretty efficiently. Um, just shows you what they can do. Like I mean I don't have more than 10 hours in a hotel, any of these days that I've been on. Polehinke: (05:40:38.2) Really. Clay: (05:40:38.7) And it's been that way for all month. Now September rolls around, and I'll guarantee you it'll be a different story. Polehinke: (05:44:04.9) I guess, when I'm, I'm deciding on making a major decision, if it doesn't feel right in my gut. Or if I don't have a little voice, if it starts...

Seconds before a commuter plane crashed after going down the wrong runway, the co-pilot noted it was "weird" that the Lexington, Ky., strip had no lights, according to a transcript released Wednesday. The runway wasn't long enough for a passenger jet when Comair Flight 5191 took off in the pre-dawn darkness on Aug. 27. Co-pilot James Polehinke said it was "weird with no lights," just seconds before the sound of the impact was heard, according to the National Transportation Safety Board transcript. The captain, Jeffrey Clay, then responded, "Yeah." The crash killed 49 of 50 people on board. Polehinke, the...

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The co-pilot who survived Comair Flight 5191 has lost a leg and must undergo surgery on a fractured spinal cord, his family said Monday in a statement. He still doesn't remember the events of the Aug. 27 crash that killed 49 people. Doctors have amputated the left leg of James Polehinke, 44, of Margate, the lone survivor of the Aug. 27 crash at Blue Grass Airport. He also has undergone surgery to repair complicated fractures on his right left and foot, and faces several orthopedic surgeries, one involving a spinal fracture, the family said.

Before dawn on Sunday, August 27th past, Comair Flight 5191 carrying fifty passengers and crew crashed during takeoff, while attempting to depart on a runway one-half the length of the one it was cleared to use. The accident killed all aboard with the exception of the copilot, whose condition was recently upgraded to serious from critical. There is no question that the pilot of the Bombardier CRJ-100/200 (depending on the source) lined-up on the 3,500 ft. runway 26 rather than the 7,000 ft. runway 22. The CRJ-100/200 would normally require about a 5,000 ft takeoff roll. Evidence of tire marks...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- The sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 49 people near Lexington last week told family members from his hospital bed, ''Why did God do this to me?'' but he hasn't mentioned the crash, a close family friend said Wednesday. James Polehinke, who was the flight's co-pilot, can move only his head, and tears often well up in his eyes, said Antonio Cruz, Polehinke's mother's boyfriend. He said the 44-year-old had only gained consciousness on Tuesday. Polehinke hasn't mentioned the crash and doctors have encouraged family members not to ask him about it, Cruz told...

LEXINGTON, Ky. - What is known is that a string of mistakes preceded the deadly crash of Comair Flight 5191, but what is less clear is which one was the crucial turning point. Was the problem the airport itself? The captain had to follow an unfamiliar taxi route that had been changed by a repaving project just a week earlier. Or, was it a decision by the tower manager to break the federal rule that two controllers should be working there at all times? Or even earlier, when the airport built intersecting runways rather than parallel ones? "It just breaks...

Family sues over deadly Comair crash By JEFFREY MCMURRAY, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago LEXINGTON, Ky. - The family of a woman killed when Comair Flight 5191 took off on the wrong runway and crashed in flames sued the airline Friday, blaming it for the nation's deadliest airplane disaster in five years. The lawsuit accuses Comair of negligence and says passenger Rebecca L. Adams suffered "conscious pain and suffering" when the plane went down Sunday morning and quickly burned with 49 people still inside. The only survivor was the co-pilot, who remained hospitalized Friday but was upgraded from critical...

The U.S. attorney’s office today joined in warning attorneys that they would be fined if they violate federal law barring unsolicited communications with family members of Flight 5191 crash victims. “We are also concerned that victims’ families may be subjected in this time of grief to unsolicited, and thus improper, communications concerning the accident by attorneys and law firms seeking to obtain clients for subsequent litigation,” said U.S. Attorney Amul R. Thapar. Until 45 days after a plane crash, federal law prohibits attorneys from contacting victims’ families about possible personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits. A $1,000 fine can be...

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...

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The lone air traffic controller on duty the morning Comair Flight 5191 crashed had only two hours of sleep before starting work on the overnight shift, a federal investigator said Wednesday. National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said the controller had only nine hours off between work shifts Saturday. That was just enough to meet federal rules, which require a minimum of eight hours off between shifts, Hersman said. "He advised our team that he got approximately two hours of sleep," Hersman said. The controller, a 17-year veteran whose name has not been released publicly, worked...

Taipei, Taiwan THE crash of a Comair jet in Kentucky on Sunday ended the longest safety streak in aviation history: it’s been almost five years since a passenger died in a commercial airline jet accident in the United States. Crashes are actually very crude gauges of the safety of air travel because they remain so rare. We must pay attention instead to the little events that happen every day in the skies and on the ground that very, very slightly increase the risk of another disaster. For instance, a pilot attempts to talk to an air traffic controller but is...

It's been the question on everyone's mind since Comair Flight 5191 crashed Sunday, killing 49 people: How could the plane end up on the wrong runway? Federal officials won't rule on the official cause for months, but the crew must have missed several safeguards and potential warning signs as they prepared for takeoff and swept down the runway, according to pilots, aviation-safety experts and attorneys around the country. "They went through several stop signs," said Ron Goldman, a Los Angeles lawyer with extensive experience in air-disaster litigation. "The safeguards are many." Those include airport charts, runway lights and signs, as...

James Polehinke, 44, of Margate, the copilot and sole survivor of Sunday's Comair Flight 5191 crash in Lexington, Ky., kept to himself, neighbors said. [snip] Ida Askew, 51, was arrested and charged with attempted murder in July 1999 after she shot Polehinke in the stomach with a handgun while the couple was arguing, police records show.

The air-traffic controller on duty at the time of the Sunday morning crash of Comair Flight 5191 cleared the plane for takeoff but turned his back to do administrative work as the plane went down the runway, investigators say. Debbie Hersman, National Transportation Safety Board member, said the next thing the unidentified controller heard was an explosion. Hersman said investigators are still analyzing what role the air-traffic controller’s attention might have played in the crash. She said both the captain and the first officer arrived in Lexington on Saturday on different flights. First Officer James Polehinke arrived at 2 a.m....

FAA acknowledges it violated staffing policies with only one air traffic controller on duty at airport when Comair jet crashed Sunday, killing 49 people.

The FAA has added a second controller to the weekend overnight shift at Bluegrass Airport, following the crash of Flight 5191 Sunday. Only one controller was in the tower early Sunday morning when the CRJ100 attempted to take off a runaway too short for it to gain enough speed to become airborne. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown declined to give a reason for the decision. Brown says two controllers are in the tower on weekdays but only one controller was scheduled for the weekend overnight shift because traffic was significantly lighter.

ERLANGER, Ky. (AP) -- The fatal crash of a Comair regional jet Sunday morning dealt an emotional blow to a commuter airline trying to emerge from bankruptcy. "These are tough things and it's very difficult," Comair president Don Bornhorst said at a briefing in a hotel near Comair headquarters in northern Kentucky. Choking up at times, Bornhorst said he was "emotionally devastated" and said he's certain all of Comair's 6,400 employees share those feelings. Bornhorst, a 15-year aviation industry veteran, pledged that the carrier would do all it could to help with the investigation of the crash while also keeping...

<p>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.</p>