Safety Board Critical of Comair Flight 5191 Pilots

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on July 26 ruled that the probable cause of the Aug. 27, 2006 early morning crash of Comair Flight 5191, a Bombardier CRJ-100 regional jet (N431CA), during takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, KY, was pilot error. The Safety Board said the flight deck crew repeatedly missed “abundant cues” that should have alerted them of the fact that they were taking off from the wrong runway. Forty-seven passengers and three crewmembers on board. Only the first officer survived and is recovering from critical injuries. After an eleven-month probe, Safety Board investigators determined that the two-man crew failed to conduct a proper preflight briefing at the airport under construction. The cockpit voice recorder showed extraneous cockpit conversations in violation of the FAA’s  “sterile cockpit” rules, and failed to react to sure signs that they were taking off from the 2,000 foot general aviation runway versus the 7,000 foot runway. “It’s very clear to us that the crew made a mistake. Their heads just weren’t in the game here,” said NTSB Member Debbie Hersman. Steven Chealander, another Safety Board member and former airline pilot, said “there comes a time for the flight crew to take responsibility. There were cues there. The flight deck crew was not doing their jobs. Human error far outweighs system errors in this case.” Contributing to this accident was the Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to require that all runway crossings be authorized only by specific air traffic control clearances. The lone air traffic controller on duty at the airport was cleared of any wrongdoing as regards the fatal regional airline accident.