Posted by Scott Clark @ 10:33 am
No Lessons Learned from Flight 5191 Crash?
Filed under: Lexington KY News
Apr
12
2007
12
2007
Was nothing learned from Flight 5191? I’m sure this article caught the attention of anyone in Lexington watching CNN today.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two airliners had to circle for 18 minutes and a plane ferrying human lungs for transplant was briefly delayed Friday while an airport’s lone air traffic controller took a bathroom break, the controller’s union said. ….”There should never be one person in the tower, because it’s not safe,” said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. “It’s just added proof that the system is stretched to its limits, and these are the type of things that are happening.”…. said the recent article.
Looking back to August 27, 2006, here in Lexington, when 49 people died on Comair flight 5191 as the plane took off on the wrong runway. We may never know the real reason it happened, but some findings definitely pointed to tower staffing as a contributing factor to why the crash wasn’t prevented.
Update: Comair admits flight crew “partially” to blame and experts continue to point to pilot distraction (hat tip John M)
Update: New report today about Tower Fatigue.
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13
2007
“We may never know the real reason it happened”.
Bunk. I was a flier in the Air Force, and the level of goofing off on that cockpit tape was completely out of line. If I’d run my pie hole that way, I would have been grounded and probably court-martialled. Plus, these bozos took off from an UNLIGHTED RUNWAY. That violates one of the most basic rules of flying. It’s like running a red light.
The ABSOLUTE responsibility for safety rests with the pilot. Air traffic controllers are just there to keep things organized and keep things on schedule. Theirs is an ECONOMIC function, NOT a safety function. Despite the political posturing of their union, the delayed organ thing was essentially an administrative screwup.