Doomed Kentucky plane cleared for proper runway

LEXINGTON, Kentucky - The air traffic controller at Lexington's airport cleared the pilots of a commuter jet to take off on the proper runway but the plane took the wrong runway before crashing and killing all but one of the 50 people aboard, an investigator said today.

"The planning discussions with air traffic controllers and the flight crew were about a takeoff from runway 22," a 7,000-foot (2.1 km) runway suited for jets at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said.

Instead, the Comair jet, bound for Atlanta on Sunday morning, took runway 26. That runway is half as long as runway 22 and was unlit because its runway lights were out of service, Hersman said in a media briefing.

She said she did not know if the lights were lit on the longer runway. The airport's director has said the longer runway had recently undergone refurbishing.

"One of the issues that we're certainly going to be looking at is the visibility and the ability for the crew to see," Hersman said. "And also the issue of whether or not air traffic control could see."

The airport tower was staffed at the time of the accident by a lone Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controller, an FAA spokesman said.

Hersman said information was being gleaned from the plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

"Both were in good condition," she said. "We have about 32 minutes from the (cockpit voice recorder)."

Preflight preparations were normal and the aircraft, a CRJ-100 made by Montreal-based Bombardier Inc., was deemed airworthy before takeoff, Hersman said.

"Finally, the takeoff roll began and the airplane continued to accelerate until the recording stops," she said.

Several teams are investigating different aspects of the crash, including visualising the situation from the pilot's vantage point, Hersman said.

"There are often issues that present themselves, whether weather or darkness or other things that could have obscured the view," she said. "We will take all of those things into consideration and that's why we are going to attempt to simulate similar conditions at the same time of day."

The crash occurred one hour before sunrise, with the jet clipping several trees and leaving a long trail of debris.

The lone survivor was the co-pilot, who was in critical condition. Another Comair employee was riding in the cockpit's "jump seat" and was listed as one of the 47 passengers who died, Hersman said.

The local coroner said the bodies had been removed from the burned-out fuselage and bodily fluids taken to perform toxicology tests.

"Toxicology reports are standard in accident investigations," Hersman said. "They generally look for alcohol and six illicit drugs.

"The history of the crew and the amount of rest that they get is traditionally a part of our investigation," she said. "We generally look back at least 72 hours if not longer. We'll try to determine how much the rest the crew had, how much they were working, what they might have been doing in their off-duty time."

Comair is a feeder carrier for Delta Air Lines. Both are restructuring in bankruptcy.

- REUTERS