http://http://www.kentucky.com/637/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Flight 5191: The investigation 60 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:16:07 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11042.html http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11042.html Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:55 EDT
6:04:38.2 a.m.

Polehinke (over the aircraft PA system): and folks one (unintelligible word) time from the flight deck, we'd like to welcome you aboard. we're going to be underway momentarily ... sit back relax and enjoy the flight...

6:05:15.1

Polehinke (radio to tower): "churliser" (which the NTSB interprets as "at your leisure" spoken very fast; an FAA transcript interprets this as the word "Toledo") Comair one twenty one ready to go.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11043.html http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11043.html Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:02 EDT
Kerry Ray Williams of Winchester told the FBI that he watched the beacon light on the tail of the plane as it rolled down the runway. The tail of the plane never lifted off the ground.

"He saw the beacon light drop, as if the nose of the plane had lifted off and was going to gain altitude. The beacon light did not rise from the ground, and then he saw an orange flash," the FBI's report said.

"He then heard an explosion, followed by several 'popping' noises, then three or four other explosions," the report said. "He said the popping noises sounded like trees snapping. Although he heard the subsequent explosions, he did not see any more flames."

Williams, a station agent for American Eagle, completed a security check on American Eagle Flight 882 just before 6 a.m. when Comair Flight 5191 taxied past him on its way to the runway.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11045.html http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11045.html Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:43 EDT
In a Jan. 12, 2006, e-mail, Lexington tower manager Duff Ortman sent a draft of a budget request to FAA hub manager Darryl Collins in Cincinnati to increase his overtime budget from $17,000 to $92,000. Without more controllers or more overtime, Ortman said, he could not comply with an FAA directive to have two controllers monitoring the airport on the overnight shift.

"There is no more rubber band to stretch," Ortman wrote in an e-mail released yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

From January to April, Ortman staffed two people on the overnight shift on "most days," he said in an interview with the NTSB. But after a controller retired in April, he staffed only one person on the shift -- a decision that violated FAA policies.

He discussed the decision with Collins, according to an interview transcript.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11044.html http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/11044.html Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:41 EDT
There was no hint that anyone other than co-pilot Polehinke was alive when rescuers reached the crash site just outside Blue Grass Airport, a National Transportation Safety Board report released yesterday indicates.

The report provides dramatic new details about the rescue of Polehinke, the condition of the aircraft after the crash and the causes of death for the other 49 crash victims, who died from traumatic impact injuries, fire, smoke, or a mixture of those things.

According to interviews in the report, Lexington Police Officer Bryan Jared and Blue Grass Airport public safety officers James "Pete" Maupin and Jon Sallee found the plane engulfed in flames after driving through grass taller than their vehicles to get to the crash scene.

Jared told NTSB investigators that a male victim -- obviously Polehinke -- was "hanging down from his lapbelt in a jackknife configuration."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/104069.html http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/104069.html Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:06 EDT
All agree that Comair Flight 5191 crashed because the pilots attempted to take off from the wrong runway, but they differ over what factors contributed to that mistake.

The National Transportation Safety Board on April 4, 2007, released documents from parties involved in the investigation of the Aug. 27 crash in Lexington that killed the pilot, flight attendant and 47 passengers. Only the co-pilot survived, though he was badly injured.

The plane attempted to take off from Runway 26, which was too short, and crashed into a farm field.

The submissions are the one chance the various groups get to give the NTSB their opinions about what went wrong -- and to make recommendations about how to prevent future crashes. This is one of the last steps before the safety board begins preparing its final report, which will indicate probable cause. The board is expected to issue its decision this summer.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/104077.html http://www.kentucky.com/637/story/104077.html Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:07 EDT
Lack of sleep hindered the performance of three important players in the crash -- the captain, the co-pilot and the air traffic controller -- the unions said in documents released April 4, 2007, by the National Transportation Safety Board. The unions made their statements as part of a response to the NTSB's factual analysis of the Aug. 27 crash at Blue Grass Airport.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association proposed that the Federal Aviation Administration and the union study the effects of fatigue on air traffic controller performance and asked that limits be set on working hours based on fatigue research.

The Air Line Pilots Association commissioned a study by a sleep performance expert who concluded that the early hour of the flight and lack of adequate sleep probably played a role. But tired pilots and air traffic controllers should not be blamed for their fatigue, concluded Dr. Gregory Belenky, director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University, who wrote the study.

The time of the 6 a.m. flight meant that all three were working during their least productive hours, as assessed by circadian rhythms, the internal clocks that all humans have.]]>