On August 27, 2006, Comair Flight 5191 was preparing for what should have been a routine early-morning flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia. Instead, a seemingly simple navigation mistake on the airport surface sent the aircraft onto a runway less than half the length it needed for a safe takeoff.
Within seconds, the Bombardier CRJ-100 was racing toward the end of the pavement with no realistic chance of becoming airborne. The resulting crash killed 49 of the 50 people aboard and became one of the most closely studied examples of how several small failures can combine into a catastrophic accident.
The aircraft, registered N431CA, was a Bombardier CL-600-2B19 CRJ-100ER operated by Comair for Delta Connection. Flight 5191 carried 47 passengers and three crewmembers. The captain was 35-year-old Jeffrey Clay, while 44-year-old first officer James Polehinke was the pilot flying during the takeoff. The destination was Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The flight was operating in darkness shortly before sunrise. Weather was not particularly threatening: visibility was about eight miles, with broken clouds at 5,000 feet and no precipitation. Sunrise would not occur until approximately 7:03 a.m., nearly an hour after the accident.
The critical mistake began during taxi. The crew had been assigned Runway 22, the airport’s principal airline runway. It was approximately 7,003 feet long, more than enough for the CRJ’s planned departure. Instead, the aircraft ended up at Runway 26, a much shorter runway measuring only about 3,501 feet. Runway 26 was unlit and was not authorized for commercial passenger departures.
There was an important reason the mistake was especially difficult to understand. The crew had actually been told the correct runway. The captain acknowledged the takeoff clearance, and the first officer’s preparations also referenced Runway 22. Yet, when the aircraft reached the intersection, the crew turned onto Runway 26 rather than continuing across it toward Runway 22.
The airport’s layout had recently changed because of construction…
