Breaking News: Comair/Delta Plane Crashes In Lexington
Cincinnati’s WCPO TV-9
Police are reporting a plane has crashed in Lexington, Kentucky. It happened around 6:00 Sunday morning. WTVQ in Lexington said they are getting reports that a Delta plane took off from the Blue Grass Airport and then crashed in a field nearby. Lexington Police also tell 9News the coroner is on the scene. Sources tell 9News the Delta plane was carrying 47 passengers and 3 crew members. 9News sources also tell us there is only 1 survivor.
A plane has crashed near the Blue Grass Airport this morning. We’re told it was a Comair flight heading to Atlanta. We are told it was a commercial aircraft. Versailles Road is blocked as emergency vehicles circle around the site.
Flight 5191, a Comair Delta connections flight, went down at 6:07 a.m. about a mile west of the airport on a privately owned farm, Comair and FAA officials said. The non-stop flight was scheduled to leave at 6 a.m. and arrive at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at 7:18 a.m.
The plane that crashed at Bluegrass Airport early this morning was a “CRJ200” type plane. Aerospace Technology’s web site lists that series as a 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet made by Toronto-based Bombardier Aerospace. The 200-series began service in 1996. Delta Connection uses more than 230 of the the 200-series through its carriers Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA), Comair and SkyWest Airlines.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Comair flight carrying 50 people crashed a mile from Lexington’s airport this morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said local authorities have indicated there are significant fatalities. A team from the National Transportation Safety Board is en route to the crash scene, she said. Comair Flight 5191, a CRJ-100 regional jet with 47 passengers and three crew members, crashed at 6:07 a.m. shortly after taking off, Bergen said. Comair is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines based in the Cincinnati suburb of Erlanger, Ky.
Comair Flight # 5191 From Lexington to Atlanta
If you are a family member or friend seeking information regarding passengers on Flight #5191, please call Delta/Comair at: 1-800-801-0088
If you are a member of the media seeking information, please call 1-404-715-2554 (Delta) or 1-800-361-2608 (Comair).
I’m watching WTVQ on WCPO. Apparently one survivor, an unidentified male who is critically injured, has been taken to University of Kentucky Hospital. The other 49 people aboard are presumed dead.
The crashed plane is intact but apparently suffered a horrible explosion and fire immediately after take-off. The sole survivor is described as “horribly burned” and was rushed immediately into surgery.
There are unconfirmed reports that the survivor is a pilot. There were three pilots aboard, one of whom was “jumpseating” – not part of the crew but picking up a free ride.
There is reportedly a long “char path” in the woods, implying that the plane traveled a long distance on fire at tree-top level. There are also unconfirmed reports that the pilots may have used the wrong runway, one too short for that type of plane.
The president of Comair is giving a press conference right now. He gave the names of the crew members but cannot release the names of the passengers until their bodies have been positively identified and their families notified. The jet’s black box has been recovered.
According to WLWT-TV5 (NBC) Cincinnati, the sole survivor may be the co-pilot, Jim Paulhinky.
There was one survivor, First Officer Jim Paulhinky, who is in critical condition at University of Kentucky Hospital.
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During a morning press briefing in Cincinnati, Comair Chief Executive Officer Don Bornhorst declined to answer questions about whether the plane could have taken off from the wrong runway. The crash site is not far from the the end of the shorter runway, which is roughly half the length of the major runway.
Farm owner: Plane “used wrong runway�
The owner of the farm where Flight 5191 crashed said the plane “obviously … used the wrong runway.” He said the plane hit an 8-foot fence between his property and the airport, and clipped several trees. Nick Bentley said he did not go the crash site, but he can see the fence from other locations on his land. Bentley said the smaller runway is for use by small aircraft, not commercial planes. “He just got disoriented for whatever reason,â€? Bentley said. He said the crash location is a “straight lineâ€? from the start of the smaller runway to where the airplane landed on his farm. He said a friend called him at 6:20 a.m. and told him a plane had crashed on his property. Bentley and his wife said no structures or horses on the farm were hit. He said the farm had some horses on it but was otherwise undeveloped.
Aerial Photo of Crash Site:
Enquirer: Did jet use wrong runway?
LEXINGTON – Investigators are looking into whether a Comair regional jet used the wrong runway — one too short for a proper takeoff — before it crashed near Blue Grass Airport this morning, Lexington police spokesman Sean Lawson said. The jet was heading to Atlanta. The main runway is 7,000 feet long. A daytime-only, unlit general aviation runway is about 3,500 feet. Chief Scott Lanter of the airport fire department said the crash was about a mile off the end of the shorter runway. “We don’t know which runway they were using,â€? Lanter said….
…A CRJ-200 needs nearly 6,300 feet for take off, according to manufacturer Bombardier. Paul Czysz, professor emeritus of aerospace engineering at Saint Louis University, said aerial images of the wreck indicate it was almost inconceivable that the airplane could have taken off on the longer runway because its nose is almost parallel with the shorter one. Also, trees at the end of the shorter runway were damaged, he said. “Sometimes with the intersecting runways, pilots go down the wrong one,â€? Czysz said. “It doesn’t happen very often.â€?
University of Kentucky Hospital was treating the survivor, according to spokesman Jay Blanton. James Polehinke, 44, the plane’s first officer, is in critical condition; he was quickly taken to surgery, another spokesperson said. Polehinke has worked for Comair since 2002. The pilot was identified as Jeffrey Clay, 35, of Burlington, Ky. He has worked for Comair since 1999 and has been a pilot since 2004. The plane’s flight attendant was identified as Kelly Heyer, 28. He has worked for Comair since 2004. “It’s horrible to see an airplane sitting in a field in an unnatural setting,� said Ginn, the coroner. His office is calling in people with a lot of expertise in dental records. He said family members are being asked to supply dental records to help in identification.
Don Bornhorst, Comair president, said in a press conference Sunday afternoon, that the captain of Flight 5191 had worked exclusively for a number of years on the aircraft that crashed Sunday morning. He also asked for both travelers’ and the public’s patience to allow time for a thorough investigation to be conducted into the cause of the flight’s crash — and to avoid speculation about the cause.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown has said the agency has no indication that terrorism was involved in any way. Both flight recorders, which should help investigators determine what went wrong were found, Fayette County coroner, Gary Ginn said.
Dr. Emily Craig, the state forensic expert, has been called to the scene, along with additional coroners. Two of the 49 victims include former UK baseball player John Hooker and his new wife. They were married last night.
In Atlanta, most of the passengers aboard the crashed plane had planned to connect to other flights and did not have family waiting for them there, said the Rev. Harold Boyce, a volunteer chaplain at Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
WTVQ in Lexington, Ky., reports that they’ve received information that the FAA has confirmed Flight 5191 may have used the wrong runway just before the CRJ-50 jet took off from the Bluegrass Airport Sunday morning. The runway in question is Runway #8-26 which is about 3,500 feet long, about half the size of Runway # 4-22, which is 7003 feet long. Runway #8-26 is also an unlit, daytime-only runway. The crash happened before dawn. Officials believe the plane may not have been able to get up in the air on time from that runway and crashed within a half-mile to a mile away. Officials also say it appears the victims did not die from smoke inhalation or the impact of the crash, but from the fire onboard the plane.
UPDATE at Approx. 10:00 pm EST from the Lexington Herald-Leader:
At a news conference this evening, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Herzman said that preliminary information indicates that the Comair plane took off from Runway 26, the shorter of the airport’s two runways and one described by airport officials as too short to accommodate the takeoff requirements of the plane. Herzman said that information is based on ground scars and preliminary information from the plane’s flight recorders recovered on the scene. Both the cockpit recorder and the flight data recorder are being analyzed in Washington, D.C. Herzman said the cockpit recorder indicates that the pilot thought he was on the airport’s longer runway. The plane crashed in a hilly, heavily wooded area on a working farm, one of many farms that surround Blue Grass Airport, said Chief Scott Lanter of the airport’s public safety department. The farm is within view of the airport runway, he said. The site appears to be directly in line with the airport’s shorter runway, used for general aviation planes. The smaller runway, one of two at the airport, does not have lights and is for daytime-only use, airport officials said.