Comair Flight 5191
Aerial view of Blue Grass Airport with unused (red) and planned runway (blue)
Comair Flight 5191 was a scheduled flight of Comair, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, which should result from Lexington to Atlanta on August 27, 2006 and crashed at the Blue Grass Airport.
Aircraft and passengers
The accident Bombardier CRJ100ER with the aircraft identification N431CA and the production number 7472 was resubmitted on 30 January 2001 at Comair and has since continuously been used by this under the Delta Connection brand of Delta Air Lines.
On board Flight 5191 were on the day of the accident 47 passengers, two pilots and a flight attendant. The only survivor is the co-pilot James Pole Hinke, who was rescued with serious injuries. He was also "flying " pilot (PF) of the flight 5191st
Misfortune course
Although the aircraft, the 2,135 meter-long runway was assigned 22, the pilots accidentally bent one of the only 1,067 meters long and unlit runway 26 and began the takeoff run. The available distance for the ground run on the much shorter path was not sufficient for the almost fully occupied jet, which finally at the end of the runway broke through the lights, collided with an embankment, the airport fence and trees and broke into two main parts. The wreckage caught fire and burned about 600 m from behind the runway end.
Causes
Studies of the flight data recorder and radio traffic and the voices recorder on board showed that the accident was caused mainly by a malfunction of the pilots before takeoff run. The investigation of the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ) also showed that in the tower of the airport the violation of internal rules favored the accident. Instead of the prescribed two was only one air traffic controller on duty, the 5191, the aircraft no longer observed after issuing the start release for Comair and thus did not notice that the boot drive started on the wrong runway. Due to construction in the area of taxiways to runway 22 in addition, there was no maps, which reproduced the structural conditions in the taxiways and runway access time of the accident, but this was not considered to be causal.