BREAKING NEWS !!!ConAir PLANE CRASH IN KENTUCKY

[DEA - banned for life]

OH NO !!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/...kentucky_crash

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A commuter jet carrying 50 people crashed in a field and caught fire shortly after taking off in light rain Sunday morning. Authorities said at least one person survived.

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Comair Flight 5191, a CRJ-200 regional jet with 47 passengers and three crew members, crashed at 6:07 a.m. after taking off for Atlanta, said Kathleen Bergen, an FAA spokeswoman.

There was no immediate word on what caused the crash in a field about a mile from Blue Grass Airport. The plane was largely intact afterward, but there was a fire following the impact, police said.

"We have no indication at all that this has anything to do with terrorism," said Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA.

The crash marks the end of what has been called the "safest period in aviation history" in the United States.

The University of Kentucky hospital was treating one survivor, who was in critical condition, spokesman Jay Blanton said. No other survivors have been brought to the hospital, he said.

Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said the passengers and crew appeared to still be on the plane and the deaths were caused either by the impact or the "hot fire" on board.

"We are going to say a mass prayer before we begin the work of removing the bodies," Ginn said, referring to the chaplains who serve the airport.

A temporary morgue was being set up at the scene and the bodies will be brought to the state medical examiner's office in Frankfort, Ginn said.

He said both flight recorders have been found.

Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were en route to the scene, said Brown of the FAA.

The airport closed for three hours after the crash, but reopened by 9 a.m.

Chaplains at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport were meeting with family members waiting for their loved ones at the airport, said the Rev. Harold Boyce, an airport chaplain.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said President Bush, who is spending a long weekend at his family's summer home on the Maine coast, was being briefed on the crash by aides. The news of it broke while he and his wife, Laura, where at church with the elder Bushes. Perino had no other information about the crash.

Comair is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines based in the Cincinnati suburb of Erlanger, Ky.

The Bombardier Canadair CRJ-100 is a twin-engine aircraft that can carry up to 50 passengers, according to Delta's Web site.

There has not been a major crash in the United States since Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 plunged into a residential neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., killing 265 people, including five on the ground.

On Jan. 8, 2003, an Air Midwest commuter plane crashed on takeoff at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, killing all 21 aboard.

Last December, a seaplane operated by Chalk's Ocean Airways crashed off Miami Beach when its right wing separated from the fuselage shortly after takeoff, killing the 18 passengers and two crew members. That plane, a Grumman G-73 Turbo Mallard, was built in 1947 and modified significantly in 1979.

The NTSB's last record of a CRJ crash was on November 21, 2004, when a China Eastern-Yunnan Airlines Bombardier crashed shortly after takeoff. The 6 crew members and 47 passengers on the CRJ-200 were killed, and there were two fatalities on the ground.

___

Associated Press Writer Leslie Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

[DEA - banned for life]

50 onboard !

[Klen]

Not good.Who knows what's happen next.

[polish_aristocrat]

Breaking news?

I read about it 1.5 hours ago

[DEA - banned for life]

Originally Posted by polish_aristocrat

Breaking news?

I read about it 1.5 hours ago

[BoyAlley]

Some families are waking up to a very bad day today. I feel for them......

[MrKinkade]

conair??? the movie with nick cage??? i think that movie crashed years ago

[Holly]

Comair.

Conair makes women's hair styling products.

[DEA - banned for life]

Originally Posted by Holly

Comair.

Conair makes women's hair styling products.

Thanks for clearing that up for everyone

[Holly]

Originally Posted by DEA

Thanks for clearing that up for everyone

Wait a minute.

Which one of us is supposed to be the dumb blonde in this situation?

[cosis]

the airport is about 10 minutes from me, that is sad

[ContentSHOOTER]

They are saying on CNN that they took off from the wrong runway. They took off from the 3500 foot one instead of the runway that was 7000 feet. Very sad indeed

[websiex]

1 survivor. Is he Unbreakable?

[cosis]

I heard it was the co-pilot, he's in critical condition - probably pretty burnt up

[mizmiz]

Very sad

[RawAlex]

Apparently the term "took off:" doesn't describe what happened, more like drove off the end of the short runway. The Regional Jet can take off on some pretty short runways, but if you are expected 7000 feet, you might take off at the 4k-5k mark. When they ran out of road at 3500, the probably didn't have enough lift to get the job done.

A sad thing...

[Big_Red]

sad. :-( how can you make a mistake like that though?

[BJ]

Originally Posted by Big_Red

sad. :-( how can you make a mistake like that though?

http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0608/00697AD.PDF

thats how, you have to cross 26 on the way to 22.

[RawAlex]

Here... visual idea of the problem.

Plane suppose to go off of 22... gets to 26, and goes there instead.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...08497&t=h&om=1

It's not hard to see how it happens... scroll down and you will see that 26 is a rather short runway.

[scottybuzz]

no cool

[KMR Stitch]

Fucking idiots.

COMAIR is Part of DELTA

Has nothing to do with convics

[Manowar]

KMR is right

[MrKinkade]

Man-o-war Johnson Is Correct

[Dennis69]

Amazing how the pilot, co-pilot and the tower didn't figure out they were on the wrong runway even before they got rolling

[madawgz]

fuck thats gotta suck for the families :*

[RichGuy]

yes sad its true...but they knew the pilot used to be a bus driver, hmm or what it s taxi driver,,,,oh no planes taxi, Iam confused

[Shankz]

Originally Posted by KMR Stitch

Fucking idiots.

COMAIR is Part of DELTA

Has nothing to do with convics

lol, thanks for clearing that up!

[Vitasoy]

That is just horrible

[RawAlex]

As mentioned on CNN, one of the issues that comes with commuter airlines is the stress of having a "wheels up" time dictated not by the departure airport, but rather by the destination airport. If you aren't in the air by a certain time (right down to the second, basically) you cannot leave until you get another arrival slot, which can be off by an hour or more. There is a tempation at smaller airports to pretty much hustle the planes out and away on time no matter what, and this may include the tower giving "clear for takeoff" quite a distance away from the actual runway.

Further, it is not unusual that once the clear to takeoff is given, that the pilots change the channel on their radio up to that of the "in the air" control. There was likely no way for the on the ground tower to contact the plane.

It was also pointed out that the same crew had arrived shortly before midnight, and only slept about 4 - 4.5 hours before returning to the airport for this early AM departure. It is considered normal because when they got back to Atlanta, they would have been replaced with another crew.

It was also mentioned that another pilot or crew member was flying on a "non rev ticket" in the third cockpit seat to get back to atlanta. This might have added an extra distraction in the cockpit (potentially keeping either the pilot of the co-pilot from clearly paying attention to things... this was a very typical morning run).

So combine perhaps a rushed departure, in cockpit distractions, tired or somewhat sleepy crew, and a radio no longer set to the frequency of ground control, and you end up with a potential combination of things that could go wrong.

Human error is rarely a single error, but rather a series of unfortunate circumstances that come together in a deadly fashion. It is pretty clear that "oops" has come into play here, and I suspect that most of the time will be spent trying to figure out how to stop that series of things happening again.

[dRI-X]

I feel sorry for the victims family

[nAtuRaLbEautY]

oh... sad to hear that
i hope all the victims' bodies would be found for proper burial...