As of May 2012 , Polehinke was a wheelchair user. First Officer Polehinke did go over the route during the takeoff briefing before starting the engines, but he didn’t include crossing runway 26, even though he was looking at a map that showed this. Although the pilots had set the heading bugs on their compasses to 227 degrees, aligning with runway 22, it wasn’t standard procedure at Comair to check these before takeoff.
This runway has been built on a separate location not connected to the runway 22.Families of 45 of the 47 passengers sued Comair for negligence. The FAA subsequently created guidelines that such systems must meet, but left it up to airlines to install them voluntarily; as a result, use of such devices is patchy.
Prior to his employment by Comair, Polehinke worked for The aircraft was assigned the airport's Runway 22 for the takeoff, but used Runway 26 instead.
Between 1988 and 2006, the NTSB had recorded 114 such cases in the US alone.
Today’s flight was almost full: shortly before 6:00 a.m., 47 passengers boarded the plane, joining the two pilots and a flight attendant for a total of 50 occupants. James Polehinke, the first officer, suffered serious injuries, including multiple broken bones, a collapsed lung, and severe bleeding. Documentary shares stories of single survivors of four plane crashes Comair Flight 5191 co-pilot James Polehinke was the only one to live through the … One such flight was Comair 5191, a short trip from Lexington, Kentucky to Atlanta, Georgia early on the morning of the 27th of August 2006.
The layout of the holding points beside the two runways appeared similar. (Note: CL600-2B19 is the official designation of the
It then struck a low earthen wall adjacent to a ditch, becoming momentarily airborne,All 47 passengers and two of the three crew members on board the flight died. Neither had any history of mistakes or violations. In 1983, a Korean Air Cargo DC-10 took off on the wrong runway in Anchorage, Alaska, resulting in a collision with a Piper PA-32 that injured nine people and destroyed both aircraft. There was, of course, the violation of the sterile cockpit rule — but as investigators and pilots willingly admit, the sterile cockpit rule is violated all the time. The investigation had to look at subtler factors that could have misled the pilots in the critical minutes while they taxied to the runway. Third, the NTSB recommended that controllers refrain from clearing a flight for takeoff until it has crossed all intervening runways, and that individual clearances be provided before crossing those runways, a recommendation which the FAA had rebuffed after its original issuance in 2000. The aircraft subsequently departed safely from Runway 22.In January 2007, a Learjet was cleared to take off at Blue Grass Airport on runway 22, but mistakenly turned onto runway 26. And the absence of certain lights would not have immediately raised red flags — in fact, on his flight into Lexington Polehinke had noticed that some of the lights on runway 22 weren’t working, and this was reflected in notices issued to the crew that very morning.Taking all these factors together, it seems possible that the pilots missed signs that they were on runway 26 due to confirmation bias. One such flight was Comair 5191, a short trip from Lexington, Kentucky to Atlanta, Georgia early on the morning of the 27th of August 2006. This time, the FAA changed its mind, and as of 2012 both of these procedures have been adopted nationwide. Like all commercial flights at Lexington airport, they planned to take off on runway 22, the airport’s only runway capable of handling passenger jets. Clearly in this case those systems failed, and the NTSB had much to say about this. Runway 26 lacked edge lighting and specialized markings, both of which were present on runway 22.
The In April 2007, acting on a recommendation made by the NTSB during its investigation of Comair 5191, the FAA issued a safety notice that reiterated advice to pilots to positively confirm their position before crossing the hold-short line onto the take-off runway,The NTSB released several reports on January 17, 2007, including transcripts of the CVR and an engineering report.In April 2007, the NTSB made four further recommendations, three measures to avoid fatigue affecting the performance of air traffic controllers,In July 2007, a flying instructor for Comair testified that he would have failed both pilots for violating Runway 8/26 on Blue Grass Airport was closed on March 2009, and the new 4,000 foot (1,200 m) runway, runway 9/27, opened on August 4, 2010. Getting there should have been incredibly simple: they would taxi across the apron, then follow taxiway A until they reached runway 22. The fuel tanks ripped open and their contents ignited on the spot. Captain Clay and First Officer Polehinke seemed to have a very relaxed relationship, with Clay using the phrase “at your leisure” repeatedly, and agreeing to engage in off-topic conversation initiated by Polehinke. Thanks to these changes, the chances of a similar accident occurring in the future have been greatly reduced.