Report: Pilots in deadly crash didn't get warnings - CNN.com
Report: Pilots in deadly crash didn't get warnings - CNN.com:
LEXINGTON, Kentucky (AP) -- The pilots in a jet crash last summer that killed 49 people left the terminal without receiving four important airport advisories, including one that said the normal taxiway to the main runway was closed, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The four updates -- called Notices to Airmen -- were missing from the flight dispatch paperwork the pilots received from Comair, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported, citing information the Air Line Pilots Association submitted to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Comair relies on prerecorded messages to get local advisories from the Blue Grass Airport, but the taxiway closing wasn't recorded that day.
Randy Harris, president of the local National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said he didn't know why the notice was omitted.
Comair Flight 5191 crashed on August 27, 2006, shortly after mistakenly taking off from the general aviation runway, killing all people aboard but one. The plane taxied to the wrong runway in the pre-dawn darkness.
Flight data recordings indicated the pilots thought they were taking off from the main runway and may have been confused by the alternate route.
The NTSB will release its findings and state a probable cause in the crash during a meeting Thursday in Washington.
The NTSB and the Air Line Pilots Association did not return calls from The Associated Press on Sunday.
The pilots -- Jeffrey Clay and first officer James Polehinke -- also did not receive information about the airport's general aviation runway being limited to daytime use and about the distance-remaining lights on the airport's main runway being out of service, the Herald-Leader reported.
Pilots contend the notice system is outdated and isn't always readily available. Anywhere from 300 to 1,000 notices are issued each day across the nation and can contain everything from departure procedures to airport construction.