Unlit runway may have confused plane’s pilots

By Steve Robrahn

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (Reuters) – The pilots of a commuter
jet who turned onto the wrong runway may have been confused by
an advisory issued earlier that the lights on the proper runway
were out, aviation sources said on Monday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the
plane was cleared by controllers to take off from the longer of
two runways but turned onto the wrong one and crashed, killing
49 of the 50 people aboard.

“The planning discussions with air traffic controllers and
the flight crew were about a takeoff from runway 22,” a
7,000-foot runway suited for jets at Lexington’s Blue Grass
Airport, Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said.

Instead, the Comair jet, bound for Atlanta before dawn on
Sunday in a light rain, took runway 26. That runway is half as
wide and half as long as runway 22 and was unlit, Hersman said
in a media briefing.

One possible explanation involved a temporary advisory to
pilots warning of lighting outages on the longer runway that
expired the day before the crash, aviation sources said.

However, the co-pilot of the ill-fated Comair flight flew
into the airport on Friday night when the top half of the
runway, where planes begin their takeoffs, had been dark.
Aviation experts said he might have been unaware the advisory
had been lifted and mistook the dark runway for the correct
one.

NTSB has not been fully satisfied with efforts to reduce
runway incidents. Even at heavily monitored airports, planes
sometimes wind up on the wrong runway or taxiway.

“It’s a major concern,” said Carol Carmody, a former NTSB
vice chairman.

At the airport, investigators drove stakes into the ground
at the end of the runway and on the rolling hillsides beyond,
where tarps protected evidence from a steady rain. Red
directional signs clearly marked the two runways.

“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.”

RECORDERS EXAMINED

The airport tower was staffed at the time of the accident
by a lone Federal Aviation Administration air traffic
controller, who had been on duty all night.

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 visualizing the situation from the pilot’s
vantage point at the same time of day as the crash, she said.

“There are often issues that present themselves, whether
weather or darkness or other things that could have obscured
the view,” she said.

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

The lone survivor among the 47 passengers and three crew
members was the co-pilot, who was in critical condition.

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.”

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

(Additional reporting by John Crawley in Washington)