Comair crash kills 49

[cmartyn 0]

Yeah, I mean, the pilots got confused because of the patchwork runway markings and the control tower dude wasnt looking. People shouldnt be surprised. There are lots of near misses all the time. Eventually a near miss will become a hit.

All part of the risk of flying.

[ual777 0]

There are far too many questions regarding this crash. Like how did two pilots not notice that they were on the wrong runway? The lights for Rwy 26 were not on, and did the compass not show them that they were on a heading of 260? Why did ATC clear them for Rwy 22 before they even got there? Why did they not try to stop them? Were they not looking out for the aircraft? The tower was shown to be active at the time. Visibility was not a factor for tower control. Can't speculate here as there are too many unanswered questions. Too many that led to too many people dying.

Those would be the million dollar questions. I will say this: often when I am taking off out of an airport the compass isn't giving me a 'true' reading due to magnetic variation, and again at that airport, you CANNOT see the other end of the runway because of a hump in the middle. Visibility sucked, its early, the runway layout is something out of a high school science fair, they threw up a barrier and changed the taxi plan, the lights on the runway aren't working, and the ATC tower is asleep at the wheel.

My big thing is the control tower. How many planes was the guy working at 6am? Its not like its O'hare.

Perhaps if that airport had ground control they would have known that they weren't at the right runway. However tower should have been able to see. They are very close to both runways, near the end of rwy 26.

If there is someone in the tower, they have ground. Its just the same guy.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Yeah, I mean, the pilots got confused because of the patchwork runway markings and the control tower dude wasnt looking. People shouldnt be surprised. There are lots of near misses all the time. Eventually a near miss will become a hit.

All part of the risk of flying.

Which is still a heck of a lot lower than the risk of driving to the friggen airport.

Edited August 30, 2006 by ET-US2004