 The remains of the cockpit of N431CA. | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | August 27, 2006 |
| Summary | Takeoff from wrong runway due to pilot error |
| Site | Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Kentucky 38°02′16″N 84°36′55″W / 38.0379°N 84.6154°W |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Bombardier CRJ100 |
| Operator | Comair dba Delta Connection |
| IATA flight No. | OH5191 |
| ICAO flight No. | COM5191 |
| Call sign | COMAIR 191 |
| Registration | N431CA[1] |
| Flight origin | Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Kentucky |
| Destination | Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta |
| Occupants | 50 |
| Passengers | 47 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Fatalities | 49 |
| Injuries | 1 |
| Survivors | 1 |
Comair Flight 5191 (marketed as Delta Connection Flight 5191 under a codeshare agreement with Delta Air Lines) was a scheduled United States domestic passenger flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia. On the morning of August 27, 2006, at around 06:07 EDT (10:07 UTC),[2]: 1 the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet 100ER crashed while attempting to take off from Blue Grass Airport in Fayette County, Kentucky, 4 miles (6.4 km; 3.5 nmi) west of the central business district of the city of Lexington.
The aircraft was assigned the airport's Runway 22 for the takeoff but used Runway 26 instead. Runway 26 was too short for a safe takeoff, causing the aircraft to overrun the end of the runway before it could become airborne. It crashed just past the end of the runway, killing all 47 passengers and two of the three crew. It was the second-deadliest accident involving the CRJ100/200 after China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210 which crashed two years earlier and claimed 55 lives.[3]
The flight's first officer, James Polehinke, was the pilot flying at the time of the accident and was the sole survivor;[4][5][6] however, Captain Jeffrey Clay was responsible for taxiing to the wrong runway.[2] In the National Transportation Safety Board's report on the crash, investigators concluded that the likely cause of the crash was pilot error.[7]
- ^ "FAA Registry (N431CA)". Federal Aviation Administration.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
ntsb_accrepwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Canadair CL-600-2B19 Regional Jet CRJ-100ER N431CA Lexington-Blue Grass Airport, KY (LEX)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
- ^ "NTSB: Crashed Jet On Wrong Runway". WSB-TV. IBS. Associated Press. August 27, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2006.
- ^ McMurray, Jeffrey (August 27, 2006). "Comair plane took off from wrong runway". Associated Press. Archived from the original on September 7, 2006.
- ^ "CVR transcript". National Transportation Safety Board. November 17, 2006. DCA06MA064. Retrieved August 9, 2021.
- ^ Ortiz, Brandon (January 25, 2008). "Lawyer claimed 5191 victims shared blame Defense by Co-Pilot to Be Withdrawn". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved July 7, 2013.