NTSB: Pilots rolled on despite unlit runway (IMHO these were FU pilots

[wakeme2008]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/29/plane.crash/index.html

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (CNN) -- As Comair Flight 5191 sped down the runway before dawn Sunday, the pilots commented that the runway lights were off but continued with their takeoff, a preliminary investigation has revealed.

Twenty-nine seconds later the cockpit voice recorder stopped as the plane crashed in a patch of woods near Lexington's Blue Grass Airport, killing 49 of the 50 people on board, the National Transportation Safety Board's probe has found.

Co-pilot and sole survivor James Polehinke was flying the plane when it crashed, according to the NTSB's Debbie Hersman.

...more at link......

I learn to fly on a 3200' runway, but shiiit my plane needed only ~1000' of that....

IMHO this was major Pilot Error.... Again IMHO, if the First Officer and pilot at the time lives, he should spend the rest of his life in Jail for manslaughter.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Before you pass judgment on this pilot, let's find out more

about how they ended up on the wrong runway and why they didn't (or couldn't) abort the takeoff. There are many possible factors at play, such as darkness, rain, poor lighting, runway and taxiway markings, fatigue, schedule pressures and the possible failure of the tower controller to notice where they were. We also need to know what their procedures were, and whether they followed them. Typically, airlines' procedures will require both pilots to have the airport diagram in front of them when they taxi, and the captain must brief the taxi route before performing the preflight check and leaving the gate. Does Comair require this as well? And even if the FO was doing the takeoff, at all airlines I'm aware of the captain would have had his hand on the thrust levers and would have been responsible for aborting the takeoff. And why did BOTH pilots fail to notice they were on the wrong runway?

Let's wait for the NTSB to make its probable cause determination. If the FO survives his injuries, he will have to live with this mistake and it will haunt him forever. No purpose would be served by prosecuting him; and I doubt anything approaching criminal intent could be proved anyhow. No pilot intends to have an accident.

[hlthe2b]

2. My guess is, as the only survivor, this guy will live his remaining

life in 'Guilt Hell.' I don't wish that on any (non-sociopath) human... Your comment suggests a need to punish beyond all possible punishment....:shrug:

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Ironic that the guy at the controls was the only survivor.

Goodness, what he'll have to live with is beyond comprehension.................

His life is over, in a sense.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. There was reporting that suggested recent taxiway changes as a factor.

I don't have a link, as I read it in a print edition. The airport had been repaved recently and the official taxiway was moved but the old taxiway hadn't been removed yet. It may have confused the crew.

[RamboLiberal]

5. Good graphic of the Changes in Taxiway

Michael Gobb, the airport's director, confirmed yesterday that the center lights on the airport's main runway were not operating Sunday morning, having been shut down in connection with re-paving work at the airport Aug. 19-20. However, the side lights on that runway were still in operation, Gobb said.

David Katzman, a Michigan-based airline transport pilot and attorney, noted in an e-mail yesterday that Blue Grass Airport's general aviation Runway 26 -- the one Flight 5191 ultimately used -- has no center lights. Because the center lights on Runway 22 also were not operating, Katzman said, an important visual cue that might have helped pilots distinguish between the two runways was missing.

Katzman added, however, that pilots would have been informed of the lighting situation through what is known as a "notice to airmen." But he called the lighting change "noteworthy."

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/15385913.htm

CoPilot may not survive this.

The lone survivor of Sunday's Comair crash clung to life last night.

James M. Polehinke, the co-pilot pulled from the burning jet's cockpit and last night confirmed by officials to be at the controls, was in a coma and on life support yesterday. Doctors were considering amputating one of his legs, family friends said.

And here's a weird bit on him.

This is not the first time Polehinke has had a near-death experience.

His wife, Ida, shot him in the abdomen with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun in 1999. When police arrived at the home in Margate, Fla., they found Polehinke lying in his blood on the kitchen floor.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/15385956.htm